Hometown Editorial

I am on vacation in my hometown in New London, CT and wasn't planning on doing any blogging or emailing or any of that stuff. But I read this in the "Letters to the Editor" this morning in The Day paper and thought it was worth sharing. This guy makes some good points.

'Bogyman' scam still used as nefarious tool


In 1937, when I was 6 years old, my family left Norwich and moved to Charlotte, N.C. We had a“colored maid” who came to our house once or twice weekly. When my mother asked her to baby-sit, she said that she couldn't, as being in Dilworth at night could lead to her arrest. The baby sitter my mother found was a neighborhood white girl. As soon as my parents left, she threatened that the“bogyman” would get me if I didn't go to bed.

I lived through the days of segregation, murder, rape and destruction of people of color caused by white, churchgoing folks. If a man's job is tenuous, and he knows thousands have lost their jobs, but he still votes for a man who will continue the same policies because a black man is also running for president, then the“bogeyman technique” still works.

The media and Republicans are linking Sen. Barack Obama with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as if Rev. Wright is the bogyman.

Much has been made about Sen. Obama not disassociating himself from the church where Rev. Wright once preached.

Was there a mass exit from the Catholic Church when it became known that thousands of people had been sexually molested by priests?

Did millions of Muslims protest the mass murder on Sept. 11, 2001, and convert?

Have Jews abandoned their religion because Israel's retaliations have killed civilians?

We can disassociate ourselves from a clergyman without leaving our place of worship or religion.

Sen. Obama has done that, but it's not enough for those who try to associate him with the bogeyman. Perhaps if they put their flag pins on, it will scare the bogyman away.

Harold A. Soloff Norwich