Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 10-21-16 Online Edition

Letter To The Editor
An Open Letter To The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg Et Tu? Justice Ginsburg
It seems as though you have endorsed your fellow Supreme Court Justice Roger Brooke Taney’s 1857 Dred Scott decision denying him freedom. Justice Taney justified his Dred Scott de- cision noting that the framers of the Constitution considered Black people, “Beings of an inferior order.” Judge Taney is also said to have stated “that a Black man had no rights that a white man was bound to respect?”
Fast forward 159 years to 2016: Colin Kapernick, a Black, professional football player decided to kneel at the playing of the National Anthem. He said, “he would not stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.”
The President of the U. S. of America said that Kapernick is “exercising his rights.”
“Most people that I have read about acknowledge that the Constitution gives him the right to protest and then have the audacity to condemn him for protest- ing.
NowwhydoIusethe word AUDACITY?
Well, it seems that since Mr. Kapernick is making a good salary for playing foot- ball, but being a “BEING OF AN INFERIOR ORDER” he should have no feelings about Black men and Black children who continue to be shot and killed by police.
He should be oblivious to the racism and oppres- sion he and his fellow
Blacks and people of color continue to endure.
Justice Ginsburg, I am an 85-year-old Black, re- tired USAF MSgt. I spent over twenty years serving my country. I also served in the New Jersey Civil Service System for twenty-two years.
I have a brother who served over twenty years in the Navy. I have another brother who served in the USAF, but received a medi- cal discharge and went on to serve twenty-five years as a police officer.
The three of us served under a flag that flew over Jim Crow and both North and South “SEGREGA- TION.”
So my brothers and I know of the racism and op- pression, both in and out of uniform, of which Mr. Kapernick is protesting when he respectfully takes a knee during the playing of the National Anthem, and I support him one hundred per cent!
Justice Ginsburg for you to call Mr. Kapernick “dumb and disrespectful” boggles my mind.
Not only did the Presi- dent of the U. S. support Mr. Kapernick, but the Oc- tober 2016 Time magazine had a feature article ex- plaining his position.
It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Can it be that in 2016 we have a new Justice Taney on the Supreme Court?
Who has Mr. Kapernick disrespected?
Frances Scott Key, au- thor of the National An- them, a slave owner and member and officer in the ACS (a group that wanted to send free Blacks to Africa or Brazil and retain slav- ery).
You, a member of the Supreme Court, who is sup-
posed to be protecting Mr. Kapernick’s and our rights? I am one who believes and supports the Jewish
motto “NEVER AGAIN.”
I adopt that slogan for all people of color who re- fuse to continue living under repression, and we are not “dumb and disre-
spectful” for doing so.
I know you will become indignant about this letter because a Black challenged YOUR statement. But what good you have done in the
past has been UNDONE!
WILLIAM E. HINES USAF MSgt. USAF (Ret.) Tampa, FL 33634
PAGE 4-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2016