The next MLK

As a co-ed attending summer session in 1965 at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles), five of us were trapped in our dorm as the effects of the Watts riots roiled around us. Yards to the east of the dorm, rioters in cars drove on the 110 freeway firing bullets in all directions. The National Guard’s Armory was set on fire just on the other side of the freeway. Citizens spoke out when the crowd set fire to local stores. The protest began in Washington Heights; Watts suffered. Residents of Watts lost their livelihoods.

It was the good people of Watts who suffered. Hooligans without a thought to those people were the looters and fire bombers. What was meant as a peaceful protest miles away to the south became a “joy ride” without thought for the law.

I’m in favor of the right to speak and demonstrate, but not when it hurts others.

During that era, Rodney King was pulled out of his truck and beaten. Violence is never the way. We need another Martin Luther King who will emphasize passive resistance and communication, a leader who doesn’t throw out epithets without thinking first of being the peacemaker.

CHRISTINE DICKMAN, Cape Girardeau