Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2017 11:39:30 -0500
From: “John R Dykers”
Subject: Taking responsibility
Thank you, Pete Jaeger, for publicly giving credit to “two young black men” for honorable behavior that set an example for us all.
Susan Bush and L. Ingram also get thanks for sharing a vision of a post racialist society. Note that Pete thereafter refered to the pair as “fellows” and “decent folks”.
We also need to accept the reality that age, sex, height, weight, and skin color are simply readily observable descriptions for people we don’t know. Having a skin color is descriptive and is pejorative only in those with a racialist mindset.
I wish Pete’s wife could have gotten names for these young men and that they could have gone out to the shop and spoken to Pete in person and observed/helped in the repair of the mailbox.
If anyone can find out their names, it would be really appropriate to give them personal credit on the Chatlist and perhaps a story in the Chatham News and other media outlets as building bridges of trust and responsibility in our community. It would not be inappropriate for the young men themselves (or their friends) to make themselves known to the Chatlist or other public media. The Chatham News phone number is 919-663-3232.
(decades ago persons unknown shot bullet holes in my mailbox. I mainly use PO Box, and roadside box still usable, so I just left it as a sign of the inappropriateness of vandalism)
So glad that all touched by this share civility that builds community.
John Dykers