Racism is alive and well in western Kansas. Your online paper posted an article regarding a Buffalo Soldier re-enactment by Barry Tompkins at Nicodemus on Feb. 17. The article was small, to the point and seemed harmless enough.

A person, identifying himself/herself as "X" posted a comment I will paraphrase here (since it was removed): "I read about Custer and they gave him nothing but trouble. When will white anglo saxon Germans have a history month of their own."

I made a comment as a reply that was never posted.

Your rules for comments made to online stories are as follows: All comments are subject to approval before being posted. Please keep comments constructive and relevant. Opinions certainly can be expressed, but comments that are rude, abusive, slanderous, threatening, sexually oriented, contain profanity or are vulgar will not be tolerated. Comments will not be edited. Any comment that violates the above-listed rules will be deleted.

What I want to know: Who reads the comments and approves them for posting? Did this "X" person's comment really fall within your stated guidelines? Was it really relevant to the article?

Someone must have thought so, or it wouldn't have been posted. But then I checked a day or so after I made my comment, only to see that the "X" post was removed. So when did someone decide it no longer fell within your guidelines? (Plus my comment was never posted.)

I thought this "X" person's comments were rude and abusive, as well as racist in nature, and not a bit constructive or relevant to the article, except for the fact he/she was referring to the Buffalo soldier in some realm of imagination.

February was Black History Month. It's a moment of pride and celebration for the forward progress of Black people. It's a time to recognize contributions to the growth and development of this country made, by black people, from its very beginnings until today. I will conjecture that their contributions will go well beyond today. Did anyone bother to check into anything about Black History Month? Anybody pick up a book from the library to read up on someone who's black? Or did you instead make a nasty crack about our president, or just anyone who happens to be black.

We all know western Kansas isn't heavily populated by blacks, but many families do live and work here. And what -- in anyone's imagination -- makes black people different from us?

What makes it so easy for white people to whine and b**** around about "them?" I'm sick of the "they" and "them" nonsense that people keep perpetrating and perpetuating against all minorities. I'm ashamed to know I live among people who are so ill-willed and ugly who would think of anyone as being anything less than a human being. This "X" person made a very strong statement revealing his/her attitude toward minorities without having said anything flagrantly racist. He/she was trying to sneak one in on you, though. Who, but ourselves, can we rely on to guard against racism? If we don't stop racist behavior in its tracks, then racism will never go away.

Oh, by the way, my reply to "X" that wasn't posted? "Yes there's time set aside/for white Anglo-Saxon Germans to celebrate ... you call it Octoberfest, you all go the park and get drunk." Now isn't that a nice way to celebrate your German heritage?

Toni Armbruster,

WaKeeney