Today’s excursion into the land of bitterness and discontent
found me reading Leonard Pitt’s latest column: Practicing the politics of racial
resentment. You have to really want to stretch and manipulate context to
arrive at the fantasy Leonard’s mind wishes to justify.

During one of many debates, Newt Gingrich expanded on a
question Juan Williams of FoxNews asked him. Mr. Gingrich
explained the value of teaching a strong work ethic to young people and especially
to those who are at a disadvantage due to their environment of family
situation.

His concept is quite reasonable: awaken the desire in the
individual to earn his or her own money (as opposed to falling to the
institutional slavery of government dependence). Show that person the value and
benefits of success through the fruits of your labor. You have now immeasurably
increased that youth’s chances of seeking higher responsibility and success because
they have a functional understanding of their God given ability to control
their own destiny. The odds of that youngster becoming another ward of the
state has sharply dropped. Success can never be guaranteed; however isn’t it
better to instill a fighting chance to aim higher and dream bigger before these
newly minted men and women try the waters of life on their own? Why not give
them a powerful weapon they can use themselves to break the shackles of
poverty?

I suppose that presenting his own daughter as an example was
of no consequence to Leonard (she seemed to fit the “Appalachian White” you hissed
about Mr. Pitts). Newt went into detail on how the experience of doing her own
thing, earning her own money and the independence to choose how to spend it was
a great lesson that proved to be a positive influence for her.

No matter. Mr. Pitts chooses to limit himself to bending and
twisting a good example into an imagined case of racial insensitivity that
should be scorned and condemned. That is a shame. I state for the record that
your insistence to view every possible suggestion as a racial affront is disingenuous.
It completely erodes your credibility for the occasion when an instance of injustice
should be denounced. Worst of all, your access to mass media, your influence –
and your utterly negative connotations – may cause someone to outright dismiss
and never even consider a genuine and well intentioned value. They will accept your
tainted assessment that every ill, every setback and every negative response has
nothing to do with their approach. It is never for them to make any adjustments
but to pass them off as everyone and everything railing against them because
they are of a certain color.

You claim that Mr. Gingrich was talking to poor South
Carolinians (whom you accuse them ALL of being racists without the slightest
cause or evidence) and then allege Newt was telling these gangs of haters: “Elect
me and I will get these black people’s hands out of your pockets”. Not only is
this slanderous, it is a patent falsehood. You also state Republicans…”seem
right at home practicing the politics of racial resentment”. Aside from being
completely clueless, this comment seems to be more descriptive of your literary
efforts. I do not know a single Republican that espouses your outrageous
assumption. If one your students really shared the parable of the rich white
man, the poor white man and a poor black man you so glibly describe in your “piece”,
then you are responsible for passing on the politics of hate and division to others
and another generation. That is disgraceful and you should be ashamed of your
conduct.

Furthermore, your venomous attempts to paraphrase Republican
leaders (what a surprise) as vindictive haters of black folk is yet another
example that you are the living breathing hater you portend to denounce. It
smacks of the very racism you pretend to be righteously indignant of. It is
clear that you have a deep seeded problem dealing with others of a particular
color and political philosophy. Let me be clear: reverse racism has
never righted a wrong. Pretending to have the right to hate others because of
the wrongs committed by others in the past will not bring a single person back
from the grave. Teaching others to discriminate against a whole class of
citizens because they are different is not only immoral, but sinful.

Instead, I will sincerely pray that your anger
at others abates. I will pray that you heart softens. I will pray that moving
forward you learn to place the blame for the past on those who committed these
vile, immoral and inhuman acts, not on those who would never dream of treating
others so. Finally I pray that the ink in your pen loses its bitterness. Pulitzer
indeed.