EDITOR:

To be or not to be remains a legitimate question. To riot or not to riot should never have to be asked. Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, St. Louis, Whatever city is next.

I cannot think of any of my family, neighbors, or people in this area who would ever choose or ever chose to riot. I grew up here where there was a given respect that such action was never dreamed of. I never felt that I was entitled to destroy someone else’s property or to take it or to harm them. My friends thought similarly. As we got older, some of us became protesters about certain things, but rioting was never an option. This current age of entitlement and anarchy is simply off the charts. Stop.

Groups claim that stealing is justified, burning too. After all, they feel they are taking what they claim is rightfully theirs. They feel that taking from a corporation or business is their right. Really? Come on, really? Is the family breakdown in some areas that bad?

I wish that leading Democrats and minority celebrities and athletes would simply come out and say, “Stop this crap!” It is certainly okay to sympathize with the causes that need change, but the antics and rhetoric of Antifa and too often BLM are simply inflammatory and destructive. Please do not try to justify it or tell me and others that we don’t understand the plight and the pain.

Sympathizers on the Left — this rioting does not help your cause. know that the mainstream media play it down, but even Democrat city mayors are getting nervous and less placating. Protesters, cops and innocent bystanders are being killed. Law and order got Nixon elected and made GOP Guliani a hero. (And to think that minority businesses are getting looted too is ridiculous.)

During the Baltimore riots a few years ago, a mother made news when she ran into a crowd of rioters and grabbed her 17-year old son by the ear and dragged him out making it loud and clear to nearby microphones that no child of hers was ever brought up that way.

Carry a sign. Write letters. Vote. Sign petitions. Reason. Pray. Talk. But, do not defeat your own purpose. Get a grip.

The night of the assassination of Martin Luther King, the eloquent words of Robert Kennedy resulted in zero rioting in Indianapolis. Biden could repeat that now. Oprah and Lebron could duplicate that. Can you envision Bernie, Kamala, Snoop Dogg and Booker giving impassioned pleas to would-be rioters to cool their jets — in person? (Not gonna happen). It’s time to grow up, kids. Time to step up, dads.

Mike Chief Olson

Escanaba