A plea to Hagerstown, Maryland's Citizens

Dewayne Wickham's column was printed in today's Courier-Journal. It was moving.

This other article says that baseball great Willie Mays wasn't mad at veterans.

Willie Mays played his first minor league ballgame in Hagerstown, Maryland. I've been to the city twice. Currently, they are home to the Hagerstown Suns. The city has yet to honor the Hall of Fame baseball player in any way whether it be a road or stadium. Why? I think the residents, well a bulk of them, are racist. I hate to name call but if they don't have the decency to honor a living great, then they truly are still racist. Why has America been unable to move forward?

Jackie Robinson was honored in Daytona Beach where he played his first minor league game as a member of the Montreal Royals (Dodgers affiliate). In 1990, City Isalnd Ball Park was renamed Jackie Robinson Ballpark.

Mays will come. Just replace the stadium.

Mays has written of being shocked by the racism he encountered at his minor league debut as a visiting player in 1950, an incident that has embarrassed the town for decades. Last year, he accepted Mayor William M. Breichner's invitation to return for a reconciliation. The mayor promised to name a street after Mays.

But Breichner picked Memorial Street, which incensed military veterans who say it's the only piece of the town named for them. The mayor's proposal died earlier this week. Breichner says lingering racism killed it; the vets say Breichner is exploiting the issue to court black voters ahead of next month's election, which will be very close.

When he visited last summer, Mays promised to come back again if the city builds a stadium to replace the one built in 1930. The leader of the veterans' group suggests a compromise that could build on the idea.

This is not about political exploitation. It's about doing the right thing.