The saddest part of all of this

is still to be determined. I keep trying to evaluate whether the saddest part is that we still live in a country where large numbers of people are significantly prejudiced against the people who do not look like them.

Or, is it sadder still, that in the name of appearances, in the interest of appearing not to be prejudiced, they shield themselves from appearing such by attacking every other part of every person who falls into that category.

Come to the country, small town Texas, and listen carefully. Go to a larger East Texas city. If, like I, you tend to be a coward about your lack of prejudice and voice it only when you think you won't be castigated for it, people (white people) let loose with their hidebound, long-held fear, hatred, disrespect, of not only black people, but of Hispanic people and Asian people.

If you thought it went away after the 60's, or the 70's, it didn't. It went even deeper underground, because it was less politically correct. And when "they" find a spokesperson who shares their prejudices, but also prates on about socially and politically acceptable differences, hallelujah, jump on the band wagon.

The question for the future well may be ... are they passing it on to their children and grandchildren. Will "good old boys" who find themselves on the ball field with boys of another race and who make friends with them, be as inclined to hang on to the old ways? Will a person being treated in an emergency room by a nurse or doctor with a different last name or accent still feel the same?

Long ago (fifty years, at least) my Southern bred husband found himself sharing a small office on a Navy ship with an Eastern black man who happened to have a Master's Degree and was also serving out his two years of reserve naval duty. Husband was amazed, and forever changed in his racial attitudes by their friendship.

When I was a little kid and Southern Negroes were moving to the Midwest in droves, finding themselves far behind their chronological peers and struggling to fit in I thought I saw the future, the answer. We'd all get to know each other, over the long haul there would be massive intermarriage and soon no one would know who came from what original race. It sounded like a great solution. It is not the only thing about which I was completely wrong.

But, maybe someday.