Import Protest : Redneck Mentality

Almost every city in the Deep South has a main thoroughfare named for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. People down there say his name with respect and reverence. Having come to Southern California from Oxford, Miss., I was dismayed to find that San Diego is sometimes a more redneck town than the one I left, especially on this issue.

Here in San Diego, we stripped King’s name from the street signs downtown. We waffled like crazy over affixing his name to the new Convention Center. Now Mayor Maureen O’Connor says she doesn’t know what to do to honor him.

The answer is clear and simple and elegant. We should name the proposed new main library “The Reverend Martin Luther King Library.” The new library lobby will be the ideal place for a King memorial statue, and in the halls we can create a gallery of photographs and information on King and the civil rights years that will be seen by school children and library patrons through the years.

It is an appropriate tribute. King was a scholar who taught us the value of knowledge in the fight for freedom. Today, part of his legacy is equality in education for blacks and whites, and in the racial integration that allows us to use public places like libraries together in peace.

I think naming a dirty downtown street for him was a token gesture. I know that trying to name a convention center for him was ridiculous. Let’s do something right for a change.

And yo, rednecks: this will get the liberals off your backs for good.

STEPHANIE FREEDMAN

La Mesa