Fearing for lives of blacks an old story

I am a 63-year-old black woman. I grew up with two brothers. I remember my mom always worrying when they left the house. Today, I have legal custody of my 16-year-old great-nephew, and I now know how my mom felt. When he tells me he’s going out with his friends, I am fearful that he, a black young man, will be taken advantage of by some racist police officer or some privileged white person who can lie on him and get him into trouble or killed by the police. I told my nephew and his friends to always video any negative contact they have with white people. If we tell the story without the video, nobody believes us. It is so sad in this day and time we are still dealing with this. Every time I look or read the news, it’s some story about a black person being killed for doing what white people do all day: just living.

ROSALIND ELLIOTT,

complex times. All they have been capable of doing is cutting taxes for the wealthy, dismantling a vital governing infrastructure, restricting the vote, imprisoning children, tormenting immigrants, alienating allies, spewing racist rhetoric and selecting clearly biased judges. One can only imagine what awaits us if they are victorious in November. I for one do not wish to find out.

JIM DOYLE,

Ration books were issued that limited their access to everything: sugar, meat, cooking oil, canned goods, gasoline and tires. Years ago, I was teaching U.S. history in a high school and covering World War II and the sacrifices on the home front due to rationing. I would pass around a ration book I had from the war. One student raised his hand and made a comment that has stayed with me: He did not think the American people today could handle the type of sacrifices Americans endured during World War II. As we struggle with the restrictions placed upon us by COVID-19 and the reactions of some Americans to those restrictions, it appears this young man was rather prescient in his observation.

LAWRENCE BURNS,