Letter: Civil rights phantom must be addressed

Unfortunately, our civil rights, developed from the Civil War and Reconstruction period 150 years ago and the Martin Luther King Jr. movement 50 years ago, have not been sufficient to offer many blacks a lasting equality of opportunity, justice and participation in our nation's economic growth.

I submit that this racial problem and Hispanic immigration must both be addressed in order to maintain our economic growth and leadership. Historically, our economic leadership was largely made possible by black slavery over three centuries and Hispanic immigration during the last century.

Our payment for many blacks has been a century of segregation in many states, racially biased criminal justice with massive incarceration, inadequate schools and continuing poverty.

For many Hispanics, we have broken up families and failed to provide fair wages or adequate security.

Our Constitution's Bill of Rights promises our people a pluralistic nation as yet to be achieved.

Any viable presidential candidate must clearly respond to these needs, but instead, we have witnessed withdrawal of previous commitments by many candidates. Donald Trump is right in accusing our politicians of serving themselves instead of our people, but is reluctant himself to seriously address these needs.

Is this the country we want?

Walt Schymik

This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 3:27 PM with the headline "Letter: Civil rights phantom must be addressed."