White Raider versus Red Raider
To the editor:
This letter is in regards to Mr. Eurich's letter to the editor, "Why not a White Raider?"
Mr. Eurich, you have fundamentally obscured yourself from understanding the memorializing of the Red Raider as a team mascot. I submit to you that you have indulged yourself into a cause that has clouded your ability to understand how this mascot is a source of pride in this town. This is very obvious in your despicable description of our founding fathers by describing them as "filthy, bloated, mottle-faced drunkard with bulbous nose, stringy hair, rotting teeth, and black Pilgrim's hat." You, my friend, are obviously the one who has an issue with racism.
Every nation in the world was built and grown through immigration. The acts of the Europeans who came here to escape tyranny and religious suppression, who sparked the shining beacon of freedom on the world, deserve the same gratitude that you pretend to seek for the Native American Indian.
Your comments and thought processes are backwards and self-promoting for a cause you have hijacked for your own personal benefit. If you truly believe the Native American culture deserves some sort of reparations for the migration of Europeans to North America, focus your energies on helping your people positively and back off on those who care only to treasure the very people you pretend to fight for.
Lastly, on a personal note, if you call the town I grew up in, fought for as a Red Raider athlete, raise my children in and continue to give back to, an "unfriendly and ignorant a place as it is backward and unenlightened," I would suggest that if you ever drive up through New Hampshire you make sure you stay on Interstate 95, go directly to Maine and forgo the Spaulding Turnpike.
I would say, sir, that this town will not take kindly to your demoralizing characterization of our people. It seems as though your kindness to a culture or a community is a bit one-sided.
Arnold Bennett
Rochester
