We should be ashamed

Dear editor:

On Saturday, I was furious, embarrassed and heartbroken as I drove downtown. Our Arlington Lawn was filled with men and women waving Confederate flags. And then I watched four older African-American women, wearing matching red T-shirts, emerge from the Arlington Hotel and stand on the front steps staring at those flags.

Hot Springs, we should be ashamed of ourselves. We spend millions of dollars inviting tourists to our city, millions of dollars inviting African-American tourists to our city and the first thing they see is a show of hatred and ignorance. Welcome to Hot Springs. I doubt they will ever be back.

It is the responsibility of Visit Hot Springs, the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission, the Downtown Merchants Association, our mayor, our city directors, the National Park Service, our county judge and every citizen of Garland County to figure out a solution. You are our “leaders,” please … lead. The one thing we cannot do is shrug and say, “It’s their right, there’s nothing we can do.” That response is immoral, cowardly and irresponsible.

My great-great-grandfather grew up in Dallas County and fought in the Civil War and I’m telling the flag-waving neophytes, “you do not represent the South, you are a disgrace and you’re behavior is selfish, cruel and detrimental to the city of Hot Springs.”

We are allowing a handful of individuals (they are not historians) to paint a hateful face on our city.

If we are cowardly and choose to do nothing about these ignorant displays, then it is our obligation to issue a warning when black men and women call to make hotel reservations. We need to tell them “yes, we invited them here, but our city is full of hatefilled racists.” That’s the message those men and women are sending to our invited guests.

Diana McDaniel Hampo Hot Springs