A LESSON IN RACE RELATIONS

When I was in the fourth or fifth grade our teacher closed the door to our class room to speak to us in private. “Today we will have a new student in our class room and although he may look a little different, he’s to be treated no different than you would treat anyone else”. That’s how our small town was integrated about seventy years ago.

The very first black family moved into our town and it made no difference to us kids. Bob joined in on all our after school activities. Near our backyard, a large warehouse had burned down many years before and only a cement foundation was left which was crumbling in some of its sections.  We kids were always sweeping up those pieces when we used the surface as a place to roller skate. Our new classmate joined us in the cleanup which we did almost every day and he was never treated any different than the rest of us. We all spent a lot of time together and no adult ever said anything to us about our friendships.

I grew up in an unprejudiced family that taught us to be respectful of others and we have raised our five children to be the same.

I cried when a black man became our president as did many of my friends and family. I believe a brilliant man should not defined by his color. Unfortunately that is not the feeling of certain factions in our country’s political climate today. However in the rest of the world there is enormous respect for President Obama which was never the way they felt about our former president, in case you hadn’t noticed.