To the Editor:

Our US Constitution’s purpose is to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” and our Connecticut state constitution describes the same purpose. As an elected town official, I took an oath to uphold both Constitutions. I also feel a duty to my children and their future children to do what I can to secure these liberties. That’s why I’m speaking out as our cities are burning.

No doubt many of the people who support the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement do so because they, like I, believe that Black lives do matter, and that we must ensure all Americans enjoy our God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This shared belief in the sanctity of Black lives has made the BLM organization extremely rich. But there’s a stark difference between the near universal sentiment supporting Black lives and the organization named BLM. To conflate the two is intellectually dishonest.

I’ll take Patrisse Cullors at her word that she and her fellow BLM co-founders are “trained Marxists,” that her personal mentor was Eric Mann (a communist-supporting domestic agitator and former convict), and that among her influencers are Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong (mass-murdering communist revolutionaries).

When George Floyd was brutally killed, our nation was united in disgust, including/especially other police officers. Yet, BLM is calling to defund the police, which would particularly leave Black inner city residents unprotected from the everyday violence in their streets. Thousands of American Black lives are already lost to homicides each year.

In America, the police are charged with enforcing our laws. If we don’t enforce our laws, we, in effect, don’t have laws. If we don’t have laws, we have anarchy.

The BLM organization advocates to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure,” as Marxism prescribes. Yet there’s a strong link between single-parenthood and poverty.

Marxism argues for a revolution to overturn capitalism in favor of communism. Through its chapters, BLM dedicates itself to the abolition of capitalism — the “invisible hand” of our free market economy. Rather than millions of individuals making economic decisions on a daily basis in their families’ best interests, all-powerful political authorities would make every economic decision. History shows that this fails miserably every time it’s tried.

Ironically, the BLM organization is calling for actions that would be destructive to Black lives, and all lives. Not only can we support Black lives without supporting the BLM organization, but we should.

The only way for people to flourish is through liberty, not tyranny. To ensure all Americans have the opportunity to realize the American Dream, we better not first tear down the American Dream.

My comments are my own and not on behalf of the Legislative Council, of which I am a member.

Cathy Reiss

42 Obtuse Road, Newtown July 29, 2020