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Letters to the Editor

In defense of Gloria Fox

I would like to express my unequivocal support for state Rep. Gloria Fox for her years of work with the prison population. They are God’s children and deserve our attention too, especially when they are committed to helping to turn the lives of our children around.

Rep. Fox did not do anything wrong.

Far too many of our young people see prison in their future rather than college or even completing high school. Gun violence in our neighborhoods is at an all-time high. Now, even infants and mothers are being shot in the streets of Dorchester and Roxbury. That would not be tolerated in any other city or town in the Commonwealth.

Victims and perpetrators are getting younger and younger. With many prisoners coming back to our community, CORIs keep them from getting the basics like housing and jobs. Rep. Fox’s work should be commended.

It was offensive to me, and to many others, to see her being treated like she was aiding and abetting a criminal, just for doing her job.

Pastor Bruce Wall
Senior Pastor
Global Ministries Christian Church

 

Sotomayor slams lacking in perspective

I am saddened by the racist and ignorant responses to Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court (“Republicans divided over Sotomayor debate,” June 4, 2009). Republican pundits such as Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh and too many others have been spewing a nonstop river of venom and negativity, calling Judge Sotomayor a racist because she acknowledges that her individual experience and location has shaped who she is.

One manifestation of racism is that some people — mostly white, heterosexual, owning-class Christian men — see their own experience as universal and without personal bias. The rest of us, however, realize that individual experiences shape everyone’s perspective.

Robyn Ochs
Jamaica Plain