Legislator should set good example

To the editor:Earlier this year state Rep. Talibdin El-Amin of St. Louis introduced his slavery apology bill. The bill was tabled before it could be voted on during the last legislative session.

On Dec. 12 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that a public hearing was held at the Old St. Louis Courthouse. It seems El-Amin and his cohorts have added some items to their wish list for next year's legislative session.

The attendees expressed their interest in reparations (based on the calculation of wealth of antebellum slave owners), a Marshall Plan of state assistance for early education (I assume this would be limited to the descendants of slaves) and the removal of the Confederate monument at Forest Park.

According to a report posted on the KSDK News Channel 5 Web site on May 24, 2006, El-Amin was described as a "deadbeat dad" and at the time of publication owed $7,000 to his former girlfriend and mother of his two children.

Apologies are in order. However, El-Amin should stop attacking Missouri's citizens and their heritage. He should set an example in his community by apologizing to his former girlfriend and by paying reparations to his children.

House Speaker Rod Jetton, who co-sponsored the legislation, could set a better example by being more careful with whom he allies himself politically.

CLINT E. LACY, Marble Hill, Mo.