As I contemplate going to the polls Tuesday May 5th to elect the Democratic nominee for Ward 5 city councilman, the most basic backyard political office. The words Leroy Brooks spoke at the March 2009 meeting of the Democratic Executive Committee keep haunting me.
Mr. Brooks” words are so much like the words spoken by Louis Farrakhan, the militant Muslim leader of the Nation of Islam who also claims to be an ordained Baptist minister. Farrakhan at the Million Man March on October 16, 1995, in Washington D.C. to a world-wide TV audience said the “dirty white man, the cracker, we hate them. Do not trust the dirty white man.” Over and over.
At the March meeting of the D.E.C., Mr. Brooks rose to the podium in the Lowndes County courthouse boardroom and with fire in his eyes and the thunder on his tongue scorned Ward 5 city councilman candidate Kenneth McFarland for several minutes saying over and over that “Mr. McFarland has been going over to white folks houses consorting with white folks doing okie-dokie politics.”
Amazingly this same spirit of hateful racism that Louis Farrakhan channeled at the world wide level has crept into our city”s Ward 5 theater.
My opinion is that Mr. Farrakhan and Mr. Brooks are wrong. And that we should all go to the polls Tuesday May 5 and stand against this hateful racism by voting for Kenneth McFarland.
Ben Ross, Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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