Letter: Systemic Racism

Watching Fox I saw what I thought was violence and property destruction in Portland, Chicago, New York City, Minneapolis: Democratic controlled cities. I tuned in to CNN, NBC and found out that Fox was misleading me. What I saw was patriotic Democrats exercising their rights to "largely" peaceful protest against Systemic racism. I wondered why the police were ordered by Democrats not to protect property and people and the general consensus was that the police were infected with systemic racism even in New York where 60 percent of them are minorities. People being injured and killed and property destroyed was the fault of police who antagonized peaceful Democrats protesting the slavery which ended December 1865. Why no concern over murders of small children and innocent minorities in these areas? It seems Democrats and their media supporters feel that minority murder not racially motivated is not concerning.

I doubted the existence of systemic racism and white privilege until shooting at Lewistown skeet. Guys I was shooting with had Ruger RED Label shotguns. Clay pigeons we were shooting were White Flyers. The name Lewistown hit me; a name celebrating Lewis and Clark who explored territory from the Mississippi west to the Pacific Ocean while Clark owned a slave. I can't imagine the pain black people feel over this exploration by a slave owner. Same for how Native Americans must feel over RED label shotguns. Maybe they get some solace knowing they were used to blast White Flyer clays into powder.

Then it dawned on me that I drive a White ¾- ton diesel truck, an obvious symbol of white power, how could I be so insensitive. Then it got worse; I use the truck to tow a Black dump trailer and I just sold a black van trailer to a white man. Clearly I'm infected.

As a cure, I started to consider voting for Biden even though he had to repeat the third grade. After all many people are stalled when they hit the math theorem of two plus two equal four. Adult liberal Democrats don't know the formula even now. Even Obama, a Constitutional scholar, could not break thru that mathematical wall. And to be fair, that was years ago when the schools required a student learn the subject before advancement.

On second thought Biden's a bridge too far. I'll stay infected.

Gary Fitzpatrick

Lewistown Mont.