Maybe It’s Time to Unclench That Fist

Thank you for Bill Plaschke’s article on Tommie Smith. In 1968, as a high school senior, I considered Mr. Smith’s gesture an affront to the Olympics and the United States. Today, I understand it as the courageous act of integrity it was. Now my children are aware of the story behind that powerful photograph. Hopefully, it will continue to provoke an awareness of racial injustice in our culture and within ourselves for as many generations as it takes for us to set things right.

JOHN BROCK

Redondo Beach

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Sometimes I wonder about the acres of newsprint The Times devotes to what amounts to free advertising by large corporations masquerading as sports; but then I read an article like Bill Plaschke’s about the life and hard times of Tommie Smith, whose simple gesture at the Olympics brought a decade of protest into focus. If it takes a tanker truck of ink devoted to the antics of overpaid, overprivileged underachievers to pay for articles like this, it’s worth it. Thank you Bill, and thank you Tommie.

THAD BEIER

Calabasas