To the Editor,
Recent letters, including two issued by Chris Maynes, continue to promote untruths in regard to the Black Lives Matter movement and claim letters of support lend his opinions veracity. They do not.
It is not “brave” to voice an obvious bias, nor does it accomplish the “positive change” Maynes claims to want while continuing his attacks. Most astonishingly, he had the audacity to suggest that we consider what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would say in response to the BLM movement — as if Dr. King would NOT be angered by the incidents of police brutality last year. King raged against the senseless waste of black lives.
Mr. Maynes is fixated on BLM protestors and not the numerous acts of racially motivated violence perpetrated against people of color in this country by a justice system that is biased. I wonder why his outrage continues to be directed at a movement aimed at social justice and at students seeking change, and not at those who perpetrate harm against people of color.
Walter Weidenbacher’s opinion piece was shocking and should outrage us all. His false claim that the students fundraised for BLM because they were victims of “child exploitation” are horrific and easily disproved. His assertion that these students couldn’t possibly decide on supporting BLM on their own is a stunning falsehood that undermines the good work our students have done, and is a sobering commentary on a very small fraction of this town. Wieidenbacher goes on to wonder if racism in Haddonfield is “anything but a distortion of reality imposed upon us by special interest groups.” Aren’t we lucky to have a white male resident of this town tell us that racism and bias do not exist because he does not believe in it?
There is insurmountable evidence of prejudice in this country and in this town, but you have not really seen outrage until you infer that a white man is racist.
We must collectively call out the lies, conspiracy theories and racist rhetoric couched in “opinion” that has been printed in these letters.
Respectfully,
Lorrie Veasey
Haddonfield, N.J.
