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Highlands Today

Pitts Column

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William R Higgins

Published: October 4, 2008

I was taken aback while reading the Opinion section this morning. Your paper prints the column of Leonard Pitts, who I admittedly am unfamiliar with as I am currently stationed in South Korea and am just home for 30 days of leave to be with my family.

However, in the opening paragraph, Mr. Pitts references his previous column and that he would like to question Sarah Palin about her attempts to ban books at the library in Wasilla, Alaska. This would not be so disturbing a statement if it came from a 12 year old. But coming from a columnist it is appalling. If Mr. Pitts were but to research his information rather than reporting as fact every bit of e-mail spam that comes across his desk, he would know that the story is entirely fictitious and that some of the books on her "list" were not even printed at the time she supposedly called for their being banned. I am providing the link dispelling the rumor for your readers: http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/bannedbooks.a...

I would also like to comment on the letter by a Mr. Jones of Sebring. Although the gentleman is probably correct that "some white voters will not vote for Obama because of their ... beliefs about black people" I personally believe that that number would be so small as to be a non-issue. And if race alone is a factor for some peoples' votes, Mr. Jones' opinion probably won't change that. However, as a country, we will never get past race being an issue as long as there are those who use such divisive statements as, "We all know how those slave owners loved our black women" (emphasis mine). It's this sort of "Us and Them" or rather "Us vs. Them" mentality that keeps the country in a position of conflict and stalemate rather than moving forward, together.

William R Higgins
Lake Placid

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