Since the tragic mass murder in the Charleston church, I have been told I shouldn’t politicize the deaths by bringing up the possibility of racism. I am reminded the people were killed in a church and it was an attack against Christians and churches. I was told racists don’t attack Christian churches. So I reminded them of the history of civil rights and church bombings in the 1960s.

I have also been told not to politicize it because it’s not about guns. I hear that every time there’s a mass murder.

A racist 21-year-old killed nine Christians because he didn’t like the color of their skin, and he’d been given a gun for his birthday. It wasn’t about the church. It was hatred. Pure and simple. It was hatred born out of the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case and the many racist Americans who supported George and his evil doings.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about doing the right thing.

Deborah Lawrence Hale

Spokane