Dear Editor:

I’m try­ing to under­stand what pos­si­ble moti­va­tion you may have had for pub­lish­ing that vile car­toon depict­ing the shoot­ing of the chim­panzee that went crazy. I guess you thought it would be funny to sug­gest that whomever was respon­si­ble for writ­ing the Economic Recovery leg­is­la­tion must have the intel­li­gence and judg­ment of a deranged, vio­lent chim­panzee, and should be shot to pro­tect the larger com­mu­nity. Really? Did it occur to you that this sug­ges­tion would imply a con­nec­tion between President Barack Obama and the deranged chim­panzee? Did it occur to you that our President has been receiv­ing death threats since early in his can­di­dacy? Did it occur to you that blacks have his­tor­i­cally been com­pared to var­i­ous apes as a way of racist insult and mock­ery? Did you intend to invoke these painful themes when you printed the cartoon?

If that’s not what you intended, then it was stu­pid and will­fully igno­rant of you not to con­nect these eas­ily con­nectable dots. If it is what you intended, then you obvi­ously wanted to be grossly provoca­tive, racist and offen­sive to the sen­si­bil­i­ties of most rea­son­able Americans. Either way, you should not have printed this car­toon, and the fact that you did is truly rep­re­hen­si­ble. I can’t imag­ine what pos­si­ble jus­ti­fi­ca­tion you have for this. I’ve read your lame state­ment in response to the out­rage you pro­voked. Shame on you for dodg­ing the real issue and then using the let­ter as an oppor­tu­nity to attack Rev. Sharpton. This is not about Rev. Sharpton. It’s about the car­toon being bla­tantly racist and offen­sive. Read the rest of this entry »

(CNN) -- A fed­eral appeals court over­turned the kid­nap­ping con­vic­tion of a reputed Klansman in con­nec­tion with the 1964 deaths of two black teenagers in Mississippi.

A three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit Court Appeals sided with James Ford Seale's claim that he should have never been tried for the dis­ap­pear­ances of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee because the statute of lim­i­ta­tions on the alleged offenses had expired.

Seale was con­victed by a fed­eral jury in June 2007 of kid­nap­ping and con­spir­acy to com­mit kid­nap­ping in the abduc­tions of the teens, who were both 19. Charges were filed against him in January 2007.

Seale was 71 when con­victed. In his appeal, he claimed he should never have been pros­e­cuted because a 1972 amend­ment to fed­eral kid­nap­ping laws estab­lished a five-year statute of lim­i­ta­tions. The appeals court agreed, over­turn­ing Seale's con­vic­tion and acquit­ting him.

Seale was arrested in 1964 along with Charles Edwards, who has since died, but the two were released on bail and never tried. (CNN.com)