Mr. Cox:

For my own purposes please remove "a waste of time" as a descriptive from this discussion. This is a subjective statement.

The central theme to my objection to this initiative is that the same people who are driving this proposal are largely doing nothing about the deaths of Black people in 2007, right in their own districts......and they are getting away with it. The trail of the Black mother who had her throat slit and allowed to bleed to death last year as her 5 month old baby slept in front of her is getting cold....but it is much much warmer than a murder from 1946.

How many Black mothers are "terrorized" to allow their children to play outside for fear of gunshots in 2007? If the feeling of "fear and terror" within the Black community as a result of these crimes against members of the community any less than was the case when the Klan rode through and shot Black folks dead on their front porch?

I am no longer willing to be pacificed by the notions of "We can do BOTH things at the same time" (focus on crime now and in the past) because the numbers are currently off of the chart for todays terrorism and NOTHING is being done!

*Vine City section of Atlanta where the killer of a Black man TODAY has a 68% chance of walking the streets as a free man

* As Anderson Cooper reported a few weeks ago out of 160 people killed only 3 people received a conviction. 1.8% rate of accountability

* Upon my visit to Memphis last week the city registered its 75th homicide this year

* Philly is up to 186 as of two weeks ago.

Mr. Cox - you should feel INSULTED and pandered to! Someone clearly knows how to play with your sentiments while distracting you to the bigger issue of what they are NOT doing as they watch from their elective seats of power.

Can we at least attempt to apply relative value between these "Civil Rights Era" murders and the daily slaughter that is occuring within Black communities in 2007? Let us commit it to a formula if possible.

One Civil Rights Era murder of a Black man by a White racist is equal to how many urban (Black on Black) murders that ALSO go unsolved today?

Proposed Formula: (C.R.W.R. * X) = (B.B. * Y)

C.R.W.R. is Civil Rights murders committed by a white racist
BB is Black on Black murders in 2007

Please plug in the values for X and Y for me Mr. Cox as an expression of your sentiments that "there are crimes and then there are crimes". This will allow us to move from subjective analysis into a more formulaic approach to quantifying the relavtive values of each.

What is the multiplier at which the Black community should be up in arms about what is happening today the same way that we can be provoked to get up in arms over a White man's killing of a Black person?

Is it every 10th B on B?
Is it every 100th B on B?

Why is it that the White man's assaults upon us are so much more valuable when both yeild a DEAD BLACK MAN? (Do you now see how my theory of "Non-White White Supremacy" is a valuable template to make use of?)

Sent by Ron B | 1:30 PM ET | 06-25-2007

Mr. Cox:

A conversation this morning that I had with an elderly gentleman who shines shoes in the Atlanta Airport laid a perfect foundation for my thoughts on the subject at hand.

The front page of the local newspaper talks about the problems with the Fulton County Jail. I mentioned this and the problems with Grady Hospital, the local government run hospital in Atlanta that is projected to go bankrupt by the end of this year. We both agreed that more funding should be provided to the hospital by the state as people from all over the state depend upon the expert emergency care it provides.

On the subject of the jail - he said that there is nothing that could help it. It is full because so many kids are going around killing each other. He called for more gun control laws.

Of course at this point I wanted to get his take on the actions of John Lewis in focusing on resolving the Civil Rights era murders. I noted how the politicians were focusing on what happened more than 40 years ago but are not doing much about the murders of today. In a statement similar to your "there are crimes and then there are crimes" statement he said "Well that's history. We need to make sure that these historical murders of Black people are resolved." I gave no reply to him but I will provide it to you.

Mr Cox - the "Front page news of today is the HISTORY of tomorrow". I can't help but figure that some day in the future some conscious Black person will operate under the notion of "if you don't know your history you are bound to repeat it" and focus on the period 1970 through 2050 as a means of understanding how the world that he experiences then has been handed to him in such a state. What will that historical record of 2007 and beyond leave for him in regards to the number of unsolved murders of Black people? In the economics of time/attention, resources and money you have a greater chance of shaping the events of today so that the history that you have control over might be for the better.

Sent by Ron B | 7:55 AM ET | 06-26-2007

Justice delayed is NOT justice denied. Granted it doesn't fulfil the thrill of the instant gratification of a swift sentence. But would this be an issue if it was a white counterpart? Cold cases of twenty years or more are still been solved to the point of a TV show was created a few years ago based on the same premise. I may not like the lethargic way many civil rights crimes have been investigated but I find comfort when a just sentence no matter how late is handed out to those who committed horrific crimes. Better late than never I say.

Sent by Moji | 11:01 AM ET | 06-28-2007

Your article title should be "Solving Unsolved Civil Rights Cases...It's About
Time".

Sent by Dave | 6:58 AM ET | 08-17-2008