Letter from Antonio Betancourt, Secretary General, Summit Council for World Peace


Summit Council for World Peace



April 11, 2009


Sylvester J. Brown, Jr.


Dear Mr. Brown:

I take this opportunity to let you know how much I appreciate your interest in the ideas on economic and social justice elucidated by Equitech International, LLC, the Summit Council for World Peace and other like-minded organizations that are part of our coalition that seeks to raise people out of poverty worldwide and increase the access to ownership and capital credit.



I am so deeply sorry that your trip to attend a press conference in Washington, DC, late last month, which I understood you undertook to learn more about our coalition and about our projects and the applicability of the ideas of economic empowerment so that you could utilize that new information in a book you are in the process of writing. It is shocking to us that this has been apparently seriously misunderstood and maligned by the newspaper that runs your column. This Coalition is dealing with a legitimate and critical issue that serves our nation and deserves to be heard.



I am outraged that the Coalition for Capital Homesteading: A Movement to Expand Ownership to Every Citizen, led by former civil rights leader Dr. Walter Fauntroy, a 21 year member of Congress has been so maliciously and mendaciously attacked. This Coalition is a movement to expand owners to every city and Summit Council is a proud partner.



It is my hope that reason, good sense and cool heads will prevail, and that your true intentions will be properly understood and reputation thus remain intact.



My best wishes on finishing the important book you are writing at this historic moment in American history.



Yours sincerely,

Antonio Betancourt Secretary General












Comments

Unknown said…
Mr. Brown:

I have read your column every time it appeared ever since I can remember. Even when I was "just going to check out the headline," I wouldn't be able to stop until I read the whole thing.

I moved to this area from Washington, D.C. You gave me a better understanding of the real community of St. Louis and explained things about this town that I did not/do not understand.

You introduced me to so many people who would have gone unnoticed without your clear, concise and compassionate writing.

By their own hand, the Post-Dispatch has lost one of its best. I have let them know it too.

Best wishes, Mel Watkin
Unknown said…
Sylvester, you will be missed as the one and only critic of Mayor Do Nothing. As I've mentioned to you in various emails regarding the aforementioned Mayor with a Dyslexic Midas Touch, his inroads are deep at the Post. Maybe you didn't believe me then but I assume you believe me now. You'd be surprized to know my identity but i'm one of those white southsiders who is not supposed to like you. To the contrary, I do like you, your column and, most of all, your willingness to speak the truth.

So as you bid farewell to one unhappy chapter in life, I hope you find comfort in the appreciation of a loyal reader who will miss your column and your objectivity.

P.S. Slay is and will always be the worst Mayor of my lifetime.

Ciao