To the editor:

According to the city code section 3.03, the New Ulm Human Rights Commission (HRC) was established “to advise the City Council and staff on human relations and civil rights problems.”

Over the course of the past several years, it has become increasingly obvious that HRC does not function as it was originally intended. The vast majority of its time and resources are not directed toward advising the City Council and staff, but toward “educating” the general public, and especially toward advising the New Ulm public schools.

What is the message that the HRC is bringing to the general public and to the public schools? We don’t need to guess. The HRC has summarized it on its web page. I would encourage the reader to examine the HRC’s statement on racial and social justice.

According to the HRC’s statement on racial and social justice, white supremacy, systemic violence, and oppression are “eroding the fabric of humanity” in our country. The HRC have stated as their goal to work for change across all institutions of our country.

Theirs is not a plea for justice, but for “social justice,” which takes away rights and privileges from the so-called oppressor groups in favor of the so-called oppressed. The “social justice” that they seek is not true justice, but is the tool of radical revolutionaries to overthrow the existing society.

New Ulm did not establish the HRC for this. Our city leaders should either return the HRC to its original purpose as defined in city code, or dissolve it.

Michael Thom

New Ulm