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Hate mail disturbs grieving Jacksonville Illinois family
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Editor's Note
The Journal-Courier quotes portions of a letter some readers may find offensive. The passages were used to give a sense of the severe nature of the letter.



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Hate mail
Posted: Tuesday, September 10, 2013 6:00 am

Hate mail disturbs grieving Jacksonville family BY MARIA NAGLE, Journal-Courier Jacksonville Journal-Courier

A Jacksonville woman collecting donations to plant a memorial garden where her 5-year-old son died two years ago in a house fire is distressed by a letter she received Monday expressing hateful remarks about blacks and people of two or more races.

�I started crying. It was talking about my son who passed away,� said Eva Brooks. The anonymous letter was addressed to her and her daughter, Crystal Smith.

�How could a person talk about a little child like that?� Brooks said. �He�s neither white nor black. He�s mixed.�

�Hello ladies,� the letter began. �It always makes me heartsick to see a Negro and a white person team up. I do not believe any Negro deserves a park named in memory of them or a memorial garden.

�They should still be slaves. Oh, yes, we have a Negro president, but he should not be. I believe people is [sic] seeing this. I am not for anything a Negro does. I think they should all be put on a slow boat to Africa,� it said.

Jacksonville Police now have the letter, holding it as potential evidence, Deputy Chief of Police Tim Shea said. Authorities are trying to determine whether the letter constitutes a hate crime. In Illinois, a hate crime can only be charged when a �precedent� crime is established � such as an assault, criminal damaging, disorderly conduct or telephone harassment� and a specific hate motive is established.

Photos of Brooks and Smith, who are white, and Brooks� late son, Isaiah, and Smith�s young daughter appeared Aug. 30 in a Journal-Courier story about a memorial walk. The event marked the two-year anniversary of Isaiah�s death and talked about Brooks� desire to plant a memorial garden. Her address was in the story so donations could be made.

The letter was postmarked Sept. 7 in Champaign. The letter was not signed and the envelope had no return address.

�I was really disturbed by it, to know that somebody would go that low with this,� Brooks said. �People like that are ignorant. They should not be writing letters like that against the mixed races or against blacks.�

Brooks has nine children. The four now living with her range in age from 14, 12, 6 and 4 and are multi-racial. She also has four grandchildren and another on the way; they are also multi-racial.

Brooks said her family is a mixture of white, black, Vietnamese and American Indian races.

Ashley Woods, Brooks� oldest child, said her little brother Isaiah did not know there where whites and blacks.

�He knew there were people,� she said.

�You don�t judge a man by the color of his skin. You judge him by his deeds,� she said. �Love has no color. I am in love with a mixed-race man. I don�t look at him for the color of his skin.�

Brooks wants to create a memorial garden where her son died Aug. 29, 2011, in a fire at her family�s Jacksonville home. An empty lot is there now. She also wants it to remember a mother and her two young sons who died in a June 27 fire at their Marnico Village residence.

�The other fire victims that I was going to put roses out there for � are white people, so I don�t understand the racist thing,� Brooks said.

So far, a woman has volunteered to help Brooks plant the flowers in the vacant lot. Several relatives of the Marnico Village fire victims also have offered to help with the project as well.

Matt Tapscott, a U.S. Postal Service delivery supervisor at the Jacksonville Illinois Post Office, said postal officials probably will not be able to determine who sent the letter and from where. Mail collected in Jacksonville is dropped off at a postal facility in Springfield for processing, except on Saturdays, when it is taken to Champaign, Tapscott said.

Sad.
Shabitch wasn't so nice when he called for everyone to skin white babies.

Fairycan don't want races mixing.

Are they hate filled and racists?

well, sad as it is for that type of behavior over someones death (especially a minor/child),, IM pretty sure the letter itself is covered under free speech in America

unless some connection can be made between that hatefulness and the fire,,,,,

Shows how far some people will go with their hate for people of another Race.

its terrible to think someone would be happy that a child died,,,but,, humans come with all types of values and priorities and perceptions

I'm sure I read some liberal post that collateral damage is acceptable.

Barry kills kids 24/7.

Where's the outrage?

acknowledging people dying is different from celebrating it or taunting their loved ones about it,,,

Liberals celebrate Barry droning kids.

i guess nobody really thought that the whole article could be fake... no offense toddy, but it seems someone wants race riots in the country, and things like like this are easily done with something like that in mind...

No offense taken.

The article is Not a fake. The letter was read on the Local News!

As far as fake articles goes, many Posted on the Political topics are probably not all factual.

Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man�s genetic lineage�the notion that a man�s intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors.

Racism claims that the content of a man�s mind (not his cognitive apparatus, but its content) is inherited; that a man�s convictions, values and character are determined before he is born, by physical factors beyond his control. This is the caveman�s version of the doctrine of innate ideas�or of inherited knowledge�which has been thoroughly refuted by philosophy and science. Racism is a doctrine of, by and for brutes. It is a barnyard or stock-farm version of collectivism, appropriate to a mentality that differentiates between various breeds of animals, but not between animals and men.

Like every form of determinism, racism invalidates the specific attribute which distinguishes man from all other living species: his rational faculty. Racism negates two aspects of man�s life: reason and choice, or mind and morality, replacing them with chemical predestination.

A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race�and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin.

Like every other form of collectivism, racism is a quest for the unearned. It is a quest for automatic knowledge�for an automatic evaluation of men�s characters that bypasses the responsibility of exercising rational or moral judgment�and, above all, a quest for an automatic self-esteem (or pseudo-self-esteem).

Ayn Rand on Racism

i mainly meant the letter itself could be fake... anyone could have written it, including the girls family... we have no way of knowing...

No, they don't.

Why is it, that according to Obama, it's ok to kill 100,000 plus people. But gassing 1000 or so is beyond a red line?? What kind of logic is that?
Liberals don't "celebrate" Barry droning kids, but it's ok as long as it fits their agenda.

Where are all the liberals condemning Hussein for droning kids?

no one says its 'ok' to kill people, but people will die during military actions

locations with primarily children are not generally targets in military actions

same place 'conservatives' were when Bush military choices lead to the death of afghani children

Well Said.