Leaflets aim to stir division in Springfield

0 Comments | Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), March, 2003

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - The leaflets showed up Thursday, tucked into doors and under the windshield wipers of parked cars, all of them vicious attacks on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The response along this residential strip of Centennial Boulevard was also passionate.

"Kinda ridiculous, kinda stupid," 24-year-old Chastity Vincent said.

"Trying to defame a dead man is kind of sad," added Sarah Cole, also 24.

And Susan Edson, another neighbor: "It's sad there are still people who live in so much fear that they have to attack other people."

The leaflets tagged the late civil rights leader with a number of inflammatory labels and urged repeal of the national holiday in his honor.

But...