To the editor:

The 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education case brought up an issue that the general public and politicians should take a greater look at: the 14th Amendment.

This amendment is a controversial one. In 1993, I saw a car with a “Repeal the 14th Amendment” sticker in Metairie, La. The 14th Amendment provides equal protection under the law from public and vocational discrimination. It was a post-Civil War amendment, passed to provide rights to freed African-Americans. In reality, this protection took 100 years to enforce nationwide. Asian immigrants didn’t have these rights in the 1880s or ’90s. Native Americans didn’t have these rights until 1924. The passing of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964-68 made equal protection a reality. Still, enforcement was needed.

Much pain and sacrifice occurred for social progress to happen. This was for rights as provided by the U.S. Constitution, not “special rights” as some people would say. Ironically, Ben Franklin admitted being influenced by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s Great law when constructing the U.S. Constitution. The Brown v. Board case came out of rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution that paved the way for the eradication of inequality. Still, much work remains.

As President Bush spoke on May 17, I wonder if he realized how much his policies were attempting to bring back “separate but equal” through socioeconomic means. It takes federal law to make state governments behave. President Eisenhower realized this at Little Rock High School. Today’s Republicans pass unfunded mandates.

Mike Ford,

Lawrence