Yesterday I drove up to Hamilton to visit a couple of long time friends of mine. The car I was driving doesn't do well on the highway, so I went into town and meandered up route 4.

Many years ago some of my dearest friends lived in neighborhoods off route 4, neighborhoods change with time. (Stick with me, I'm getting to the point) I, personally, have never paid much mind to being different within the population of a neighborhood (Ladera street in SantaBarbara- the only European American in a Mexican enclave... 12 years in Southern Indiana, several years in the all black slums of downtown Cincinnati), but then I've never qualified that there is a difference between who people are and what they look like.

So I had no qualms about dropping into an auto parts store (to pick up some oil) even though I was the only white person in the parking lot. I swear, the clerks and the rest of the customers looked at me as if I were insane. An older man walked up, said ‘Hello' and ‘How are you today?' We chatted briefly and in a friendly manner. I've been told that they must have decided I was not a ‘wanna be' or a threat, since they didn't shoot me.

There in is my rant for the day.

What the hell has happened in the last dozen years to this country? People have become so afraid of everything that they cannot speak to each other! This is absurd! There is no difference in the humanity, the value, the soul of any peoples because of what they look like, or what their address is, or their income. We must talk openly about this, we must support each other in taking on the challenge of changing the prejudice and bigotry and fears within ourselves and each other.

This has to stop. This living in fear of everything that is different is exactly what has made our country not be the best in the world and we have done this to ourselves. We have secretly become segregationalist's and this will be our downfall.