To the editor:

In “The biggest issue facing Black Americans today” (Feb. 19), Ira Weinberg says, “Beauty, like racism, is in the eye of the beholder.” When he looks at the John Brown Statue, he sees Brown is looking down and the black boy is looking up. Thus, Mr. Weinberg views Brown as patronizing and as a “Great White Father” imparting “White wisdom.” He sees “a boy who could pass for Gary Coleman wearing White man’s clothes.”

Really? Why do Mr. Weinberg’s eyes behold those things when he sees a man and boy having a conversation? Perhaps he is blind to the statue’s context and the intention of its donors.

The John Brown Statue was given to New York state “in the name of the American Negro.” A group of black Americans, the John Brown Memorial Association (JBMA), funded the statue, approved its design, and placed it at the farm site to show their gratitude for John Brown and his comrades (including five black men). The statue was unveiled on May 9, 1935 (John Brown Day — his birthday) by Lyman Epps Jr., an original member of the Black community of Timbucto, with assistance from Mrs. Eva Franklin Durant, president of the Lake Placid Chapter of JBMA.

In Mr. Weinberg’s opinion, the statue reflects “the opposite of John Brown’s values.” Can he not see the possibility of two human beings walking side-by-side as equals? That is what I see in this statue. I see John Brown’s love and self-sacrifice for the human race, especially for future generations of black youth. I see the same values that are reflected in the famous (imaginary) scene of Brown stooping to kiss a Black child as he exits the jail on his way to the scaffold.

Perhaps part of the problem is that Mr. Weinberg does not know the facts. “Former slaves” did not stay at the John Brown Farm and the farm was not a station on the Underground Railroad. These are old myths that have been debunked years ago. (One former slave, Cyrus Thomas, stayed with the Browns when they lived at Flanders farm in 1849-1851.) John Brown was not a “terrorist” who “killed those who did not agree” with his views, nor did he want to create “a separate free Black nation.” Brown wanted a nation that applied the truths and unalienable rights stated in the Declaration of Independence to ALL people. His other guiding principle was the Golden Rule. While ending slavery was Brown’s immediate goal, he also believed in civic and social equality. That is what made him extraordinary, even among white abolitionists of his time. And that is what the statue is about.

Sandra Weber

Elizabethtown