I read with dismay the story in the Howard County section of the Sun headlined "School board makeup raises concern" (Jan. 2).

As a 34-year resident of Howard County I have learned that the county is a great place for minorities to live and where minorities have plenty of influence and plenty of opportunity.

What would Del. Frank Turner and the mysterious African-American Coalition of Howard County have us do about the fact that there isn't a black person on the school board? Marcelino Bedolla says of the board that "there needs to be a Hispanic member and a black member." Well, there are almost twice as many Asians in the school system as Hispanics. Should we create two guaranteed black seats and two guaranteed Asian seats and one guaranteed Hispanic seat on the board?

Should the Asian seats be held by Chinese people or Japanese people or Korean people or people from Turkey or India or the Asian side of Russia? Should there be an African-American seat and an African-African seat or a Caribbean seat? Should the Hispanic seat be for a Mexican, Venezuelan or Honduran? Should the Hispanic seat be for a dark-skinned Hispanic or a light-skinned Hispanic? Should Guatemalans complain if there isn't Guatemalan on the board? Should there be a guaranteed seat for a gay person? Should there be a guaranteed seat for a Catholic, a Jew a Muslim and an atheist?

How about if Howard County lets its diverse community put forth candidates and lets individuals vote and lets the school board do its job in cooperation with the African-American school superintendent and the African-American chief operating officer without a bunch of whining?

Jim Roberts, Woodstock