Letter of the week: Ferguson and a U.S. awakening

Ferguson, U.S. awakening

I’ve had a new realization about the turmoil in Ferguson, Mo. As much as officials of Ferguson, St. Louis County, Missouri and the federal government would like to minimize this into a local occurrence, perhaps time and events have propelled this situation to the forefront of a much larger issue — racism and the atrocities that American police forces and white people in general continue to perpetrate on black people throughout the country.

How much longer will Americans tolerate racist policies such as stop and frisk in New York?

Or that a black person, especially male, is many times more likely to be stopped while driving, especially in white neighborhoods?

It’s sad that poor little Ferguson should become the line in the sand, but somewhere, sometime we must find a way to make equal justice available to every man, woman and child in this country. Until someone actually draws that final line, I don’t believe it will ever stop.

Rex Block of Raytown is a retired travel agent. He was born in Nebraska, raised in Wyoming, has lived in the Kansas City area since 1991 and is a member of the Baha’i Faith.

This story was originally published August 24, 2014 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Letter of the week: Ferguson and a U.S. awakening."