Letters to the Editor

Correction

The Dorchester-Roxbury Labor Committee wants to make one correction to our letter published in the Nov. 25 issue of The Banner. We stated that The Salvation Army had not advertised upcoming Kroc Center jobs to the neighborhood, nor produced job descriptions of the promised 85 percent of jobs to be awarded to people in a one mile radius of the Center.

This was true when we submitted the letter on Nov. 10, 2010. However, on Nov. 18 in The Banner, The Salvation Army did advertise its Nov. 20 job fair to be held at the Kroc Center.

This was a well-run job fair, and we are pleased, yet saddened to report that approximately 500 people needing jobs attended. Our Dorchester Roxbury Labor Committee hopes that a) The six full-time and 18 part-time jobs offered will indeed be given to neighborhood people, and b) The wages and benefits provided will be adequate.

We look forward to continuing our work with the community to win construction and other decent jobs for Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan residents.

Janet Jones and Jean Alonso
Dorchester-Roxbury Labor Committee

A memory of Andrew Jones

I was the first person Andrew met in September of 1966 at Phillips Exeter after he was dropped off by the Michaud bus from Richmond. He had all of his belongings in a cardboard box held together by a rope.  His dorm room was next to mine on the second floor of Wheelwright Hall. We were both new, so we hung out together. I was a wealthy, white Republican who thought that everything wrong with America was a consequence of the Civil Rights Act. We argued a lot about politics, but always in a way that was intended to inform rather than intimidate, and so we became friends. We stayed in touch for years after Exeter until he left the country. I will always remember him with greatest affection.

R.N.A. Cecil
Via e-mail

On the recent NAACP election

People should be heartened by the turnout that both candidates for president and candidates for the other offices generated. The fact that it took a long time to vote is a sign of both the number of folks participating and the fact that the election apparatus was not prepared for a strong turnout. This, too, is a testament to those who put themselves on the line and ran for office. I hope that each person who ran and those who supported them will continue to be involved. There is a lot of work to do, and in the words of a great community leader: “If everyone does a little bit, then no one will have to do a lot.”

Ron Marlow
Via e-mail