A recent front-page article announced that the Iron Mountain City Council passed a resolution affirming the Black Lives Matter movement. No doubt their intentions were good and they wanted to proclaim that racism is ugly and unwelcome in our community. Who wouldn’t agree with that?

But I don’t agree that there is a need to affirm the controversial BLM movement, which calls for whites to pay reparations for slavery, plans to disrupt the nuclear family structure, insists on defunding the police and much worse.

BLM’s agenda is dangerous and the organization includes leaders who threaten that if this country doesn’t give them what they want, they will burn the system down and replace it (hinting that it would be a literal burning down). Our city leaders should have known about this group’s history and motivations and should want to distance themselves from an organization that promotes such radical ideas and hostility.

There is a better way to express support for civil rights and to quell racial tensions. Our city leaders need to affirm that we are all of one race — the human race — with varying levels of melanin in our skin.

But Black Lives Matter, as a movement, is nothing that the Iron Mountain City Council should be affirming in an official resolution. They should rescind the part of their resolution that supports BLM and simply state that racism will not be tolerated in our community. I urge them to do so today.