In light of the horrible events surrounding yet another racially-motivated mass murder, I will ask neither forgiveness nor permission as I express my deep sorrow and even deeper anger!

As human beings, and more importantly, as children of the God we each worship, we, every one of us, can and do understand the vile nature of murder and the deplorable aspect to assigning racially-motivated tactics to justify such murder.

With this being said, I will neither ask forgiveness nor permission for bringing this conversation out into the open!

Some people refer to racism in America as “our original sin”.

I however prefer to think of racism as America’s dirty little secret! To consider this as the original sin adds a component of history, which I believe allows us to keep a comfortable distance from the importance of this issue.

By referring to it as our dirty little secret, we are forced to acknowledge its existence in the here and now!

To put it simply, it is incumbent upon all of us to view racism as repugnant a notion as spousal or child abuse!

Once again, I will neither ask forgiveness nor permission for painting such vivid imagery when describing the continued state of all things racial in our great nation!

The irony of my writing this column is that I was “advised”, while campaigning for city council to “lay off“ posting opinion pieces with the media (traditional or social) because it could negatively impact voters’ perspectives. Conversely, I believe that by being elected and hired to represent my community, I owe it to those same voters to stay true to what I believe.

As most who actually know me can attest, I am willing to suffer the occasional punch to the grill when it comes to standing and fighting for others. In other words, I refuse to ask forgiveness or permission!

Until we, as big tough Americans, become more comfortable embracing our better angels and choose to dispatch our lesser demons, we are doomed to bear tearful regret for the the lost souls — not just those who lose their lives senselessly, but possibly, and more importantly, the souls of those of us left standing in the ruin.

Chris Perry is a member of Ironton City Council. Their website is https://Irontonohio.org.