To the Editor:

George Pratt’s swing, and a miss by a mile.

Mr. Pratt, anyone who’s been around Altamont for a generation or more knows of your legacy (and notoriety) and dedication to the security of the village.

Thank you for your service. And we’ve also had the good fortune to have your opinions bestowed upon us via this good newspaper, as vitriolic as they can be. Thank you again, for your concern.

This latest missive [“Are we today supposed to erase history?” June 18, 2020] I’d actually taken some time to think about your points on the Schuyler situation as I think they are valid and I wonder, how far do we go with this? My 11th great-grandfather was Harman Albertse Vedder, one of the founders of Niskayuna and a “Schout,” or magistrate, in the new city of Schenectady, and a documented slave owner.

I wish that wasn’t so, but there’s little I can do about it and frankly it doesn’t affect my reverence for him, but then we know this man was farm help and Vedder wasn’t engaged in human trade (in fact he was reprimanded for having too close relations with the Native Americans, but I digress). And I have no idea how the man was treated.

I was engaged in your argument until I got to your “intellectual idiots” phrase.

Let me be the first to point out to you, Mr. Pratt, the utter hypocrisy of you raging against and insulting those who want to do something, anything, to try to remedy the wrongs the white race, and especially law enforcement, have committed, and continue to commit against people of color.

We’re not looking at one-off cases of bad cops, Mr. Pratt. We’re looking at a legacy and tradition of white people, and especially law enforcement, planting their collective knees on the necks of people of color.

What would be helpful would be for people like you, esteemed veterans of law enforcement, to implore and encourage your brothers and sisters in blue to remember they are public servants and to raise the standard of law enforcement from out of the gutter, Mr. Pratt, rather than standing out in your yard yelling at the clouds.

I would assume a man of your demonstrated conviction to law and order and public safety would want to be part of the solution. Don’t you, Mr. Pratt?

Chuck Meeusen

Princetown