Dear Editor:

Amanda Gorman recently wrote a “guest essay” in the New York Times, titled “I almost didn’t read my poem at the Inauguration.”

The reason why she almost didn’t is astounding, understandable, frightening, sad. I could go on.

This sweet talented young woman was afraid of what might happen to her. Why? Because she is black. She was afraid for her safety. Even to the point of thinking of wearing a bulletproof vest. Imagine!

What a horror! This huge event in her life and it is overshadowed by a real fear of not being alive by the end of the day. Imagine getting in a car or wearing a hoodie or selling cigarettes or just walking down the street or just reading your poem and not being alive by the end of the day. We need to do better as a society.

Black Americans live with this fear every day. How horrific is that! They were slaves in this country in the beginning and before the beginning of this country. Slaves are not paid, their children are taken away and sold. They are beaten, starved, sexually abused and so much more. Sometimes I wonder if people knew how cruelly they were treated. Maybe, just maybe, if they would realize, I mean really realize how they were treated, they could not justify their horrific actions. Actions such as chasing down and killing someone just because of the color of their skin. Chasing down with pickup trucks and guns a man that was just in the neighborhood. Imagine how frightened this young man was.

How do people justify these cruel actions. What do they have in their head? It is so embedded in their thought process because it is has been accepted for so many years.

I repeat --- society needs to do better. Much better!

Sandy Besecker

Westport