'Scratch a Hippie' 

Editor:

The elections have come and gone, Measure M has been voted down handily. This action by the good people of Arcata is another empty gesture akin to window-dressing and lip service. It is astonishing to me that when the NAACP is asking Humboldt State University to please discontinue recruiting students of color because of the discrimination they experience when they live in our community, the good white people (82 percent of the population, as of 2010) have targeted the statue of McKinley to protest.

'Tis easier to distance yourself from a president who has been dead for 117 years (while continuing to reap the benefits of his policies) than to grapple with the real problem of racism in your town, eh? Scratch a hippie and find a hypocrite every time.

Susan Pahl, Manila