Couples ‘make it legal’ during COVID-19

The June 20 paper is full of “read good” articles. Thank you for staying alive down there at The Meridian Star.

What really got my attention, however, was the list of marriage license applications for March through June – 104 applications! Can that really be correct?

All those people quarantined during this COVID-19 pandemic decided to make it legal? I wonder if you will get more people writing to you about that? Or will Circuit Clerk Donna Jill John get more phone calls?

Anyway, thanks for the smile and laughs!

Barbara Wells

Meridian

Editor’s note: The Star confirmed with Circuit Clerk Johnson that the number of marriages was indeed correct. “Almost every county jumped way up in their numbers…we (clerks & staff) have talked about it, laughed about it, as if the world was coming to an end,” Johnson wrote.

Flag talk stirs up bitterness 

It looks like that with all the problems facing our city, state and nation, that there would be some more pressing matter than trying again to change our state flag. (The Meridian Star, editorial, June 23) However, stirring up issues, bitterness, and racial hatred might sell more papers in some neighborhoods.

It is doubtful, however, that it will sell much advertising.

Dan Coit

Chunky

Blaming flag is wrong

Blaming flags and statues for what is happening to Black people is not right or fair.

I’m upset with the way that some Black people have been treated and the way they are being treated. It is shameful that those of color are still being mistreated.

But to blame flags and statues is unfair. To say otherwise is hurtful as well as racist in itself. I’m outraged by the fact that whenever some bad apples do something stupid, it gives the rest of us a black eye.  To say that all whites are racist and hateful is a racist stereotype that is hurtfully unfair, and not true.

To say that Confederate statues should come down because they are considered symbols of hate and racism is a slap in the face to those on both sides, black and white, who want to keep them on display to serve as a teaching tool to educate all of us on the painful lessons of the past. We will know how to be by learning about the mistakes that were made in our country’s history.

Our state flag is not the problem, neither is the Confederate flag, nor the Confederate statues. It is some people who have hate in their heart who are the problem.

We all have the right to keep the flag we all want as it is, not to be told we can’t have our flag because our rights don’t county anymore.

Roger Burt

Lauderdale