Thinly Veiled Racism: an Open Letter to the Editor

To: Editor, Hill Country Community Journal

Last week a solicitor called and persuaded me to subscribe to the HCCJ. I did it for two reasons. First, I have hoped Kerrville would get an alternative to the local daily, which is a joke. Second, the solicitor said that part of the proceeds would go to the Red Cross.
The first issue I received contained a vicious, lie filled attack piece by Harley Belew accusing Senator Obama of being a traitor, atheist, and “sleeper” for al Queda. Mr. Belew claims that as a “professing Christian” he has more in common with African-Americans than Senator Obama. Let’s see – is he thinking of the Southern Christians who supported slavery, and preached against the right of blacks to vote, attend schools with whites, and have equal employment opportunities? Which branch of Christianity is he “professing” – the version that Governor Plain subscribes to where they talk in tongues and roll around on the floor, and stone a witch or two? Or the more mainstream denominations like the Methodists or Lutherans? Or maybe the Opus Dei, with their hair shirts and whips for self flagellation? If he is so strong in his faith, does he handle venomous snakes?
If Moslems are so terrible, why did Pres. Bush decide to “liberate” Iraq and bestow the gift of democracy on a country full of people who are all going to hell any way? And please spare us the phony concern for Jewish people. The same people who hate blacks usually hate Jews too. They hate any one who they brand as the “other.” If they care at all about Israel it is only because that is where they think Armageddon will start.
Before I went to law school I intended to be a college professor, and I earned a masters degree in sociology. I understand that being educated and having a law license makes me the “other” in the limited minds of bigots like Mr. Belew. I will close by saying that the drivel your journal thinks is worth publishing reminds me of the semi-literate hate propaganda that the Ku Klux Klan and White Citizens Councils polluted Mississippi with when I was living there in the sixties. They were dangerous, violent people, and I personally heard a bomb explode that killed a man in 1966. The people who used to call an educated, accomplished black man the “n-word” know they can’t get away with that kind of undisguised bigotry and vulgarity, so they use code words such as “sleeper” Moslem.
Fortunately I have not paid for my subscription. Please cancel it. Thank you.

Sincerely yours,
Richard L. Ellison
Attorney, Democratic candidate for 198th District Attorney