To the Editor,
July 23, 2021

Mr. Marsh has a few years to go to be my age. Growing up in a small Kansas town, my first encounter with a black person that I can remember was when I was about 13 years of age (Mr. Marsh just being born) and the Harlem Globetrotters came to town. I did not know it then, but they could not spend the night in town.
I have seen a lot of changes in my life then about black people. Yes, there were a lot of oppressive laws against them but the changes I have seen are for the most part good and needed. When I went to K-State in the early 1950s, there were only a few black students, now there are many. I served in the Army with black soldiers (the Army was not segregated) with the low rank to officers. I have lived neighbor to black people. Now, however, my life is being turned upside down. Since I am a white male Republican I am a racist with white privilege, a redneck who President Biden says will destroy democracy.
I do not equate the actions of such people as Martin Luther King Jr. with people like Michael Brown and George Floyd. Mr. King was protesting unjust laws. He did not fight against his arrest but obeyed the police and went to jail.
It appears to me that Mr. Marsh is equating the actions of Michael Brown, a thug, a thief, someone who did bodily harm to another person, to that of Dr. King. He is also equating the actions of George Floyd, a drug abuser who tried to pass off counterfeit money, to Dr. King.
If Mr. Brown had not robbed and beaten the store owner in the first place, he would not have been shot. If Mr. Floyd had not tried to pass off counterfeit money in the first place, he would not have been killed. These two are criminals doing harm to society, not protesting unjust laws like Dr. King was doing. There is no comparison whatsoever. Brown and Floyd are not heroes like they are being made out to be but genuine criminals!
As I said previously, Black Lives Matter is only concerned with how much money they can make off incidences such as these.

Don Siemsen
Holyrood, Kan.