To the Editor,
In the October 14 Native Sun News, Rapid City Councilwoman Charity Doyle accuses me of slander, yet she can’t cite one example. The reality is she loathes me because I have the courage to stand up to her bigotry. She hopes to stop her critics with loud and angry ad hominem attacks because the facts aren’t on her side.
Here is the truth: In 2008, only three years before her first election to public office in South Dakota’s second largest city, she authored a hate-filled 122+ page book called “Political Prostitution”, which is still sold on Amazon.com. She is listed as the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and marketing contact for the book (p. ii), which is filled with vulgar, racist rants and denigrating sarcasm.
Councilwoman Doyle even attacks Dr. Martin Luther King as a “racial leader” (p. 18) and belittles him for taking a stand against the public display of nooses, and she lectures that he and the rest of us should simply not be offended by the symbol.
Really? The noose is a symbol of oppression and murder. And if you think that’s bad, turn to page 25 for one of many examples of her vile use of racial slurs.
How ironic – Charity Doyle repeatedly slanders Dr. Martin Luther King and minorities, and then she slanders me by accusing me of slander because I stand up for Dr. King and minorities. We live in a world where right has become wrong and wrong is right.
Why does her extreme and controversial book matter? It matters because she holds public office. It matters because she fiercely advocates and defends views most of us find abhorrent. It matters because her writings explain her past decisions and predict her future actions as an elected official. It matters because, unfortunately for our community, she practices what she preaches in her book.
It’s no surprise she fought against the Human Relations Commission, fought against common sense reforms to help minorities and people with disabilities and fought to derail the nomination of the first Native American/Hispanic and bilingual Chief of Police in city history.
If Charity Doyle would take the energy she uses for hate and use it instead to serve others, Rapid City would be an even better place.
Sam Kooiker
Rapid City Council, 2002 – 2011
Rapid City Mayor, 2011 – 2015
skooiker@rap.midco.net
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