The editorial "Howard's school choice" in the September 29th edition was disturbing, if not downright offensive. In it, The Sun implies that since there are no African-American or Hispanic members on the school board, the voters of Howard must be racists, and action is needed to negate their voting choices. It is also implied that the board only acts in the interest of the western county schools, when in fact the school board acts in the interest of all county schools.
In the current mindset of "diversity is job one" that your paper seems to embrace, you apparently see nothing wrong with taking away Howard residents' choices for their school board and replacing them with a board where some members are appointed to ensure the racial and ethnic makeup is "correct." When board members are appointed, they will owe their allegiance to those who appointed them, not to the people of the county. I'm surprised that you haven't lobbied to do the same with regard to how teachers are hired, or applied your reasoning to local, state and federal elections to ensure the same outcome, since as I look at the current makeup of the U.S. Senate it doesn't appear to meet your rules for "diversity."
When I was young, I believed that Martin Luther King's dream could become a reality, and I still look forward to that day; editorials like this show us your belief that the color or ethnicity of a person is more important than their character and abilities. Here's a suggestion: leave Howard's school board choices to the county's voters, not to a single person or committee who will surely pick someone who "looks correct" rather than the best candidate so as to ensure that there is no "controversy" and that no more questions get asked.
Ed Roth