Please don't pander to people

To the editor:

You can judge a person’s character by the legislation they support. The following Democratic Party 2020 presidential primary candidates attended or spoke at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s annual National Action Network conference. Each was asked by Sharpton if they supported legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas to have the federal government spend hard-earned tax dollars to study if Washington should pay reparations to decedents of enslaved peoples.

The following “politically correct” liberal presidential wannabes looking for Sharpton’s blessing said they would support this proposal: Corey Booker, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard, Tim Ryan, Beto O’Rourke, John Delaney, Jay Insle, John Hickenloop, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro and Andrew Yang.

Since passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the private sector — along with city, state and federal government at all levels — have spent trillions under various programs which benefitted African American citizens. This included minority quotas for both employment hiring and admission to college, awarding of contracts to disadvantaged business enterprises, minority business mentoring programs, work place mentoring programs for promotion to higher positions, and others.

Every glass ceiling in both the work place and government was broken years ago. The election of President Barack Obama in 2008 was the last barrier to be broken. It has been common for decades to find African American citizens holding senior management positions in government and business.

There is now a large and growing African American middle class.

My Jewish ancestors did not own any plantations and did not poison any slaves on Hebrew National Salami. They were too busy running away from the Cossacks and the pogroms.

Several African American generations have benefited and grown over the past 45 years since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It is time to move on rather than go back more than 150 years to re-litigate the Civil War. We have all grown to look beyond the color of a person’s skin, ethnic origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or age, and accept each person for who they are today.

These potential presidential Democratic Party nominees who continue pandering do not deserve either your vote or campaign contribution.

Larry Penner

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