Editor:

I read with disbelief Steve Stewart’s column “Back in the spotlight” (Wednesday, Sept. 30) in a recent edition of The Farmville Herald.

While I agree with Stewart that the upcoming debates offer Farmville and Longwood University a chance to enjoy the spotlight, I wholeheartedly disagree with his assertion that we should therefore erase or ignore the problems in our community.

Stewart’s column replicates the white supremacist thinking of Farmville’s past, from his exhortation of misled outsiders that echoes the racist editorials of J. Barrye Wall to the denial of contemporary racial issues that mirrors the genteel surfaces Farmville projected as they denied education to its black citizens in 1959. 

Stewart’s mischaracterization of Kristen Green’s book is almost as surprising as his refusal to see the racial inequality that still plagues Farmville.

Have we come a long way? Yes. But to suggest that this town has no racial problems is to ignore the reality of a town that still has underperforming schools plagued by poverty and racism as well as a political structure still dominated largely by white men.

The response to these issues should not be guilt or shame but concerted action to develop education and employment possibilities.

The vice-presidential debate allows us a chance to shine the spotlight on these important issues, which are not unique to Farmville but central to our nation, and to continue the hard work of racial reconciliation and community development.

David Magill

Farmville