Shooting reminds that racism still lives

Amen Mr. James, I understand the hardships that your grandparents faced and overcame. Their efforts were not in vein. The biggest thing that aggravates me is the mentality of the American Dream is given not earned. Americans who use escape goats are fools trapped in their own follies. When I see American Citizens picking up the trash of the illegal immigrants on the projects I have worked. I find that shameful and a slap in the face, to the generations before us, who worked and fought to make this nation great . I don't blame the Illegals they are looking for a better life. I blame the lazy Americans for not taking advantage of the opportunities that were given to them.

Trey,why would you rather put blame on law abiding citizens for the illegal activities of some immigrants? You must condone all illegal activities as long as the criminals are seeking a "better life".I find it offensive that I,a US veteran, must learn spanish in order to work at a job that I have been doing for 20 years just to accommidate illegal immigrants.You obviously have not worked with the illegals from mexico.They are not here for a better life,they are here to make and send home as much money as possible before they are caught and deported. It is because of people like you that there are over 11 million illegal workers in the U.S.Consider one thing,the money earned by illegals, half is being wired to mexico every friday.That is money that is not being put back into our economy whereas the money make by legal workers stays in the US and bolsters OUR economy not mexico's.I think you are the shameful one for siding with criminals rather than law abiding citizens.

The racism displayed by the mad shooter was anti-Semitism. The fact that the color of the guard was black wasn't relevant to the shooter. "Holocaust Museum" is where the shooting took place. If the shooting was about the black race, the crazy could have turned his gun down any street in D.C. and had all of the targets he wanted.

This well written and well intended letter speaks of the hardships of the racism of two generations ago, but ignores the slavery and racism of today. Look in the many thousands of projects around the country and see how the black man is treated. The slavery of the subsidized life style that continues to belittle and destroy the black population across the nation is just a vote buying scam that assures the black vote for the "massa" that keeps them down. An entire group is relegated to second class citizenry and, apparently, made to like it.

Patriciathomas: I generally agree with your comments about 95% of the time. This time I agree 100%. There is no reason for the letter writer to assume otherwise and make this a white on black racial problem. It was a hate crime alright but definitely not of the variety that Mr. James eludes to.

Mr. James ends his LTE saying "We must all learn to get along". That doesn't happen at family get togethers and will never happen in society at large. I applaud Mr. James's intent to strive for excellence, and suspect that if more of us were busy doing the same, there would be less discussion about race.

PT, you may want to rethink your post, "The fact that the color of the guard was black wasn't relevant to the shooter." According to fox news:
Von Brunn, a World War II veteran, had long been known in white supremacist circles for his racist rants and extreme hatred of Jews and blacks. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,525825,00.html

If there is truly "no color associated with being a part of this country", then why refer to the guard who lost his life as a "young African-American hero"? He did his job and he is, truly, an American Hero.

The letter is simply a reminder that discrimination and racial hatred is a huge problem in America. It manifests mostly between blacks and whites in America, but other parts of the world have these same problems as well. The problem in the US is that many whites associate racial bigotry as a 1940's problem when the mentality of some have never changed. patriciathomas has an interesting take on many subjects, but there are times when his views are ridiculously insensitive and deliberately insulting to blacks while at the same time offering a sugar coated spin for white folks to swallow. patriciathomas went as far as to say that Jena, LA was not a problem because the nooses the white children hanged from the tree in front the school were to small to harm the black children. The intention was never to physically hang anyone, it was to remind blacks in the new millenium that racial hatred in some has not changed. The New Black Panther party don't deserve a pass either. Blacks don't need them to blame whites for black's shortcomings. We need to be honest an address our race problems & attitudes. The comments on this site directed at the races are insulting.

Blacks are also racist and bigoted; racism and bigotry are problems of all people and not delegated to one particular group. Blacks also owned slaves; some were owners of the largest plantations in the South and they were harsher "owners" as well. Blacks sold their own people to the European traders, so it wasn't a matter of raiding villages. When you want to discuss history in terms of slavery, then you should study the issue more fully rather than simply what occurred in the US. Slavery has been around long since before Christ was born.

That worn out old bigot was hell bent on shooting someone. It could have just as easily been a blue-eyed blonde. He just lucked up and came across a black man. You just need to remember, he's not only 88yrs old, he's a nut.

First to the mans family I send thanks and prayers.But as long as there is hateful people there will always be crazy mental people like James Brunn a white supremacist or (Yahweh Ben Yahweh) born name-Hulon Mitchell Jr who lead a black supremacist group in the 80s.Anytime you get a group together to preach hate aganist people for their religion,race or what they believe in you will get some crazy people who do stupid stuff like this.Dont forget the shooting of the abortion doctor in his church.These hateful groups come in all races and religions.It happens all over the world.

Totsalot.... You are on point as far as I'm concerned. We don't need excuses, we need honesty to turn the corner on racism.

Racism is not a US problem. It's global

This is in response to patriciathomas' 6:03 a.m. post. "The slavery of the subsidized life style", has nothing to do with race. There are white people who fit this category as well. I also disagree with your statement "An entire group is relegated to second class citizenry and, apparently, made to like it." Not so much the first part of your statement, but the last part. My perception is that they are not made to like it, but rather that they love their situation of being supported by the taxpayer. After all, isn't this mentality the reason we have our current president?

maninthemirror I think patriciathomas was alluding to the fact that virtually 90% of black people vote Democratic because the Dems promise more government assistance and more taxing of the rich to give to the poor. The Conservatives, like patriciathomas, argue that the message in that is that black people cannot achieve anything themselves. The subliminal message is, "you'll never be one of the rich or elite but we'll punish the rich and elite to make your ghetto living a little better." It encourages defeatism.

Give me a freaking break! That guard did not get shot because he was black.

The most racist people I know are all black, get over it.

I met a lovely woman of a different race than mine yesterday. We were seated next to each other randomly and quickly began a thoughtful, interesting conversation in which we found we had a lot in common. Eventually, we discovered that we were both the same faith. I think our faith and positive attitudes laid the groundwork for being willing to talk to each other, despite the racism we both have been targeted for in our lives. I don't let the racism of a few who have targeted me, get in the way of reaching out to others of the same race. I relate to each person as an individual, not as a group, unless you mean the human race. Apparently, she does, too. It is always good to meet people who will take the time to get to know you instead of succumbing to prejudice. They give me hope for our future.

I don't believe that racism will ever do more than wax and wane, this side of eternity. It's part of the fallen nature of creation. Evolved societies deal with it best by creating cultures that place high value on qualities like justice and fairness, courtesy and kindness, generosity and courage for all citizens. I can't help what kind of things I like and don't like, but I sure can help what I inflict on the people around me. The same goes for everyone else. If we made an effort to be polite and not make other people have to "deal" with our presence, things would be much easier among such divergent cultures and standards for public behavior. The bottom line on dealing with the reality of racism is to BE AWARE of other people and BE NICE to them. There's no way to eradicate people like Von Brunn from any race, not completely. They hate and haters will find a reason to act out their hate, regardless of the cause they pick to justify themselves.

Besides, it's racist even to point to race as a reason for anything. There is not genetic basis for race; What we have is different families with somewhat different physical characteristic. My kids are blue or green-eyed blonds. My grandkids won't necessarily look that way at all. What we call 'race' in this country is nothing more (or less) than different cultures, values and standards for virtually everything having to co-exist in the same space. I'm not a racist becasue I don't have the same values or if I really dislike and find totally unacceptable some features of another culture. Even though there still are lots of throwbacks who turly believe they hate based on skin color, the real boon to our nation in this century would be if we all realized it really isn't about 'race' and quit trying to deal culture clash as something it's not.

This killer is one of many crazy white people losing their minds since Obama has been elected president *SHRUGS*, they are going crazy. I wish he had died instead.

I wonder when he goes to jail will they put him STRAIGHT in with the Neo Nazi racist group or general population?

Just listen to everyone and see if we get the point of the letter now. We have already started the finger pointing as to which race is the better racist, but we still insist America is not obsessed with the color of our skin.

Or maybe the shooting is still a reminder that evil still lives? Or that mental illness still lives?

"The bottom line is, we are all Americans who have a right to enjoy the freedoms that the Constitution affords. There is no color associated with being a part of this country. We must all learn to get along."

Rogers K. James

I've been to the Holocaust Museum. I don't remember anything in the Holocause museum that pertained to blacks. That man went there because of his hatred of Jews, and there just happened to be a black guard there. He could've just as easily shot a white Jewish person there.