Letters to the Editor, 10-15-17

News-Times
News-Times

To the Editor:

As El Dorado High prepares to celebrate Homecoming 2017, it is worth remembering that 50 years ago a small group of us African-American students were members of the graduating class of 1967. This was 10 years after the Little Rock Nine entered Central High. We were recruited by the local chapter of the NAACP to transfer from Washington High mid junior year ’66. The apparent strategy was to catch everyone off guard thereby keeping publicity and demonstrations to a minimum. Those first days were not easy. There were insults and skirmishes, our cars were vandalized, pep rallies always started with rousing renditions of Dixie and the Confederate Flag was ubiquitous. However, after a while we became largely ignored. We were the embodiment of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. The tragedy of this is that although progress was being made, we missed the invaluable opportunity to engage rather than simply tolerate one another. When I look through my yearbook, I cannot point to a single classmate who did me physical harm. Nor can I recall the name of anyone who offered friendship, empathy or compassion. There we were in the midst of a huge racial experiment and from both sides the reaction was to tolerate rather than talk. EHS has clearly changed over the years. I know it to be a fine school. GO WILDCATS! But interact with each other on campus the way that you do so successfully on the field.

Wilfred Delphin

New Orleans, formerly of El Dorado

To the Editor:

The heated rhetoric directed towards First Financial Bank and the Murphy Arts District by El Dorado Historic District Commissioner Parks Hammond during a monthly EDHC meeting as reported in the News-Times on Oct. 13 was both unkind and uncalled for. Perhaps the installation of the ATM at the Festivals and Events gate area did not meet all the EHDC requirements but there is not a better corporate citizen in El Dorado than First Financial Bank and certainly the efforts of the Murphy Arts District have always been aimed at boosting our city. The “public shaming” that Commissioner Hammond delivered in a public meeting was mean-spirited. If those comments were indeed needed, they should have been expressed privately - after all, we should all be working together not tearing each other down. I am sure both FFB and MAD will make efforts to correct any mistakes. The work of the EHDC is appreciated but these comments were way out of bounds.

Mark Smith

El Dorado

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