I was heartened to read Mr. Collins’ column on the Dru Sjodin phenomenon [Free the Jackson Five!, January]. I share his concern for the inequitable distribution of compassion by citizens, leaders, and media alike. That is why I spend a whole day in a vigil fast every time someone, no matter what color, is killed in my community. So many lives have been taken in the poor and brown communities of America and so much indifference has followed. It is time for us all to recognize the predictable and conditioned disparity in responses of passion and apathy we express when lives are lost. And it is time for us to pledge to resist those prejudicial urges and respond to the quiet, more humane, pleadings of our ailing consciences and our rational minds. The call is for an evenhanded disbursement of value. It requires a deliberate and willful changing of our behavior. Whether or not we feel like it, we must consider and mourn all equally.
Don Samuels,
Minneapolis City Council Member,
Third Ward
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