Racism must be eliminated, starting with whites

Racism must be eliminated, starting with whites

Regarding Rabbi Rob Lennick's column [July 9]: I consider myself a spiritual woman grounded in reality. I am a white Southern woman now in my 80s. I disagree with Rabbi Rob although I find him an interesting, enlightened man who often comes to Eureka Springs' Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. "Hope" can be an opiate lulling good people to forget we, the citizens, have to demand, work for and protest until change comes.

I saw much racism in my growing up privileged in Mississippi. White supremacy is a white person's disease: We started it and we must kill it. In addition to the brutality and horrors done to people of color, white people have been brainwashed, gated away from the great big world of color, and conditioned to believe that our privilege is worth allowing the brutality of white policemen on men in the black community. Of course, not all police, etc., are racists. That's not really the point. The point is systemic racism allowed to go unpunished. How many of the white cops who shot black unarmed men ever went to trial and to jail? I do not want to live within a white supremacist society: It is mean spirited, ugly, and not very much good, clean fun. I traveled abroad as a journalist and learned, celebrated, danced and sang in beautiful cultures.

Colonialism and imperialism need not exist at all. It is only greed that allows some rich people to lord it over the poor. It is stupid. Actually, one can only eat one meal at a time; one can only wear one outfit at a time; everyone is going to die. Why make everyone's life miserable?

Trella Laughlin

Eureka Springs

Fayetteville library needs community's love

Fayetteville is not a city that is satisfied with just being good. Fayetteville is a city with vision. Fayetteville is always looking to be better. But we don't follow the crowd to be better. We set the standard for other communities. That is why there is really no question that our library has to be top notch.

Fayetteville has always had priorities for education, community and culture. Our library is the place that brings these priorities together. In fact, our library brings the world to Fayetteville. What's cool is, the world is not just here for those who can afford to experience culture and education. Our library brings the world to all of us. Even those of us who don't know what we don't know! So now, after 12 years of exponential growth, our award-winning library is bursting at the seams for all that is happening at this central hub in our community.

The new design with program ideas for the Fayetteville Library expansion is a plan that brings us experiences we did not know were even possible. The library opens our lives to see all kinds of new things through various programs, speakers, digital music and books, and most of all, librarians, who can open those doors.

So vote "FOR" with me two times on Aug. 9: one for the expanded building and one for operations. There has not been an increase for library operations since 1948. If we don't go FORward, we will go backward. Personally, I am not fond of backward. Aug. 9 is our opportunity to say, we are "For" building Fayetteville's future. Love our library. I do.

Bryn Bagwell

Fayetteville