Perhaps Mr. Hinnenkamp should understand that nonviolent civil disobedience — yes peaceful protests are a form of expression — is a right to express grievances civilly, not incitefully. However, in this particular situation, to infringe on the rights of others and for some protestors to impede the very staple of our communities is inappropriate. The police were not able to perform their duties, hence, other citizens rights were trampled on. Secondly, Mr. Hinnenkamp, the unarmed black man was not just standing there doing nothing. He refused to stop fighting. The responders could not get him to stop, so they could save the womans life. Mr. Hinnenkamp’s implication is that he was an innocent, just standing around. None of the situation would have happened in the first place if not for Mr. Clark’s actions. Period. Point blank.

Before Mr. Hinnenkamp labels me as a racist, let me tell you. In the 1960s as a young teenager, my cousin and I traveled to Arkansas to visit relatives. We went to town one day and my cousin and I looked at each other, agast at the bathrooms labeled, “white only” and “colored.” Then we went to a restaurant where we sat at the counter across from a black man, lady and child. When the waitress came to get our order we said, “Oh they were here first,” pointing at the African-American family across from us. She yelled at us and stated, “Oh they’re just a bunch of (N-words),” and further yelled at us, “Now what do you want?” We were scared, did not say another word, and we ate and got up and left. If you don’t think that sticks with a young kid from Minnesota who never before saw anything like this, I don’t know what does.

In my 63 years here on planet Earth, I know one thing for sure. God created all men equally. No one person matters more than any other person. We all matter. We are here for a purpose; however, for extremist liberals to staunchly instill only their agenda is not what Dr. Martin Luther King taught and lived. He was divinely inspired. He was a remarkable human being who taught non-violence. To now once again divide and separate races by the BLM slogan is to revert back to a long ago time in our history when we were all separated. Dr. King did not preach separationism; he preached inclusion and unification.

 

Vicki Pestorious

Albert Lea