How hypocritical can one be? In Leonard Pitts’ Oct. 31 column (“Nation shaped by Emmett Till’s death, always will be”), he decries the fact that the sign marking the spot of Emmett Till’s death has been defaced and is glad that money is being raised to replace the sign.
Yet he’s lobbied for years for America to bring down the Confederate flag — as much a memory of an era in American history as was the death of Till. That sign marked a spot where an American stood for his beliefs; the Confederate flag also stands for Americans who stood for their beliefs. Those beliefs are not racially motivated, as Pitts’ revisionist history would have us believe, rather the belief that each state had (has) the power to make decisions for the good of that state, not being dictated to by a centralized government or some oligarch or dictator who rules by executive actions or a Supreme Court ruling by enacting laws unconstitutionally.
If Pitts can commemorate a youth whose slaying helped inspire the fight for freedom and equality, why are not the rest of us Americans allowed to commemorate our fight for freedom and equality with equanimity? Pitts wants to champion his choice of heroes, but does not allow others of differing beliefs the same choice. Shame on him.
