Comments on proposed Poplar Ave. name change

As I was reading the letter regarding changing the name of a small stretch of Poplar Avenue to honor the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, I recognized the inherent lack of ability so many people have in distinguishing the ideas of the BLM slogan from those of the All Lives Matter slogan.

The writer, Emory Jones instantly identifies the movement as a “bandwagon,” so you know where the article is headed. He then goes on to laud the life of his relative who came from hardship and poverty to a useful and meaningful life making $100,000 a year. That is truly admirable.

Many of us, including myself, came from poverty and hardship and despite the disadvantages, managed to live useful and meaningful lives while also making enviable salaries with enviable benefits as well.

But we started our lives white and disadvantaged, so we are ahead of Black people, who are disadvantaged from birth.

Jones then proceeds to lament the prejudice and slurs the Italian and Polish had to endure, but he ignores the fact that they were not casually killed by law enforcement for the color of their skin or their country of origin.

He jumps to a statement that says “thousands of black babies were aborted by an organization started by a woman who promised to eradicate black lives.” He does not cite the organization or name that woman, but others of his political persuasion often try to lay that at the feet of Planned Parenthood and Margaret Sanger.

He distorts the fact that she abhorred abortion and started Planned Parenthood to give destitute women birth control so that they would not have to suffer through childbirth every year when they could not feed them and had to watch them starve.

Her theory was that if birth control were allowed, there would be no need for an abortion.

Finally, he makes references to Black people looting and killing their own. Another “fact” only advanced on conservative television channels or social media distorting political agenda and calling it “facts.”

Yes, All Lives Matter, but not all lives are at risk for being killed by a rogue cop and witnessed by other cops too afraid of retaliation to intervene.

I wear my BLM shirts and masks proudly, and so should everyone who claims to love his neighbor.

Sharlott Swanger, Senatobia, MS