The following opinion piece was written and submitted by Victor Laster in response to the previously published opinion piece, “The #BLM Needs MLK” written and submitted by Clark Stith.

“I could not have said it better myself. As a black man growing up in the South, I have experienced situations that the Black Lives Matter movement is protesting against. I have experienced racial profiling systematically and every other way imaginable. But violence will never ever be the answer.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in peace and love no matter what was going on around him. He understood that violence is the absolute worst thing to counter violence. If we want to make a change in this world we have to do it the way God has intended; with love.

Without a moral compass (God) the Black Lives Matter movement is just a part of the problem. Countering violence with violence is only deepening the stigma that we have against us.

Every life on this planet is important regardless of skin color. End police brutality across all races. All lives matter, regardless of our skin color.”

The following opinion piece is a community submission and doesn’t reflect the opinion of TRN Media, which encompasses SweetwaterNOW and The Radio Network.