Speaking

I had a chance to hear Senator Obama speak today…and what I heard impressed me. He spoke specifically about race. And what a shame it is that he had to do that. But he is right; racism is part of the American life today. An ugly part of it. And it would be easy to point to the South and to the big city ghettos, saying that it’s there! That’s where the racists are! Not here, not in my neighborhood, not in my church. But it is here. It’s pervasive and evil, it doesn’t stop at the church door and it infects us all.

I’ve been to small towns in Georgia and been ashamed of the ‘white’ people that I met, for their bigotry. And then I see it right here on the Planet Orland, in the galaxy of Glenn, and it’s exactly the same and I’m ashamed once more. People here refer to the ‘mexicans’ and the ‘hmongs’. They don’t say, ‘Carlos’ or ‘Vin’ or ‘Maria’. They won’t give them the dignity of a name.

But it doesn’t stop here. It’s in Chico and Sacramento and every small town in between. Let’s face it; we have a long way to go before we’re rid of this.

(By the way…if you’re looking for the twentieth century, it’s alive and well here on the Planet Orland)