Holton, Hansen worth emulating

Regarding the June 2 article in The Times Record, “Protesters march on police dept.,” I’m struck with the difference between those protesters demanding that police officers take a knee to honor George Floyd, and those asking. One protester spoke to an officer with respect and the result was the officer listening, shaking the protester’s hand and embracing him. Kudos to Toby Holton and Lt. Paul Hansen – they are the ones to emulate during this painful time. George Floyd’s death has hurt everyone: minorities who live with fear, all people who long for a country free from prejudice and police officers who find themselves stereotyped as Derek Chauvins. What happened to George Floyd was unspeakably cruel. Anger at the inequality and racism in this country is appropriate; violence, destruction and looting only fuel the divisions. Black lives matter. Police lives matter too. Let’s think of Toby Holton and Paul Hansen and come together as we work towards equality.

Julie Zimmerman,
Topsham

Sad irony

As I saw the knee of the police officer pressed down on the neck of George Floyd and heard him cry “I can’t breathe,” I thought of those juxtaposed words on the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses … yearning to breathe free.” Sadly, that image of the cop’s knee on the neck of a black man is one more expose of the larger and continuing, social, judicial, economic knee pressed down on the neck of the African American community throughout our country as they still struggle … yearning breathe free.

Jim Henry,
Brunswick

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