TO THE EDITOR:
I was astounded to encounter the callousness of the letter your paper printed on Tuesday. Tom Howard complained of being inconvenienced by the Ferguson solidarity march that took over Franklin Street on Friday evening, implying that his rights as a driver trump those of the 100 or so protesters angered by the police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown and by the police in general.
Howard may very well have a legal right to drive down Franklin Street unimpeded by the unfolding of historical events taking place before his very eyes. The people of Ferguson, of the United States, certainly have no “right” to block streets and fight back against police when they are being teargassed and beaten. But all of us who love freedom and hate oppression have a responsibility to support their struggle, especially those of us with the class or racial privilege to avoid the daily harassment experienced by many communities under our country’s increasingly militarized police.
After already making clear his actual concern of personal inconvenience, Howard then disengenuously offers us some sagely advice: “One catches more flies with honey than vinegar.” But if the people of Ferguson hadn’t stepped outside of the bounds of the good citizen, how many of us would have even heard of Michael Brown? Martin Luther King once said that “Rioting is the language of the unheard.” As Howard’s “calm down and wait” message makes clear, the Black poor of this country are most certainly unheard.
John Robertson
Chapel Hill
March Participant
