On July 27, 1967, black activist H. Rap Brown said at a press conference in Washington that "violence is as American as cherry pie." The following year, proved the most tumultuous in modern American history with assasinations, riots and the beginning of a troop commitment spike in Southeast Asia that reached over a half-million American men and women.
This current presidential campaign has been as nasty as the one in 1968 and the level of violence in this country has reached an almost unprecendented level. Police killings of innocent African-Americans seemingly occur on a daily basis and now attacks against law enforcers are escalating as well ("'Not as divided as we seem,'" July 13).
If this paradigm does not change rapidly and permanently, this country will cease to be recognizable. I fear the worst, but hope for the best.
Marc Raim, Baltimore