Posted by: Robert F. Jackson
Comment: #1
Fri May 9, 2008 10:02 PM
Dr. Thomas Sowell,
I feel truly excited to be corresponding with you. You have become my favorite columnist. Many people have been encouraged by me to make the reading of your columns a practice. I admire you for the determined climb you have made to your present status. I pray that you will continue to enlighten us for a long time to come.
I came up in a poor white family, playing with African-American children. My parents determined to have as many and as good friends who were African-American as others. I grew up being taught to respect every person, no matter how much we may differ.
Several years ago, having to moonlight as the weekend supervisor for a security firm to earn the money to pay for treatments one of our adopted daughters had to have, I encountered a young African-American man who was working as a guard. I had taken the time to show him some ways to be better at his job, and learned a little about him in doing so. He showed surprise that I was willing to help him instead of putting him down. When I asked why he was surprised, he told me that he was, as I could see, African-American and I was white, and this was in Alabama. My reply was, "I do have prejudices, but it is my responsibility to keep those prejudices from influencing my relationships with others." He stuck his hand out to me and told me that he was from a northern plains state, and that everyone claimed to be "color-blind," but that he could see them looking at the color of his skin and letting that control them; he had to come to Alabama to find honesty!
Dr. Williams, I believe you have recognized the dishonesty, and the misuse of that dishonesty, that rages across the United States of America in our present times. More people need to listen to you!
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Posted by: Loretta
Comment: #2
Thu May 8, 2008 7:08 AM
Thomas Sowell, you truely move me this morning. I feel like maybe, just maybe there could be hope for our future generations. With the total focus (it seems) on the Democrat Primary fieasco, one would think someone put a bad chemical in the United States water supply. I admire you, not because you turned out so well for a black man that the bar has kept down, (what a bunch of Hogwash), but because you have seen the opportunity to make yourself a quality life and seized it. THAT IS THE AMERICAN WAY. I look forward to reading alot more of your articles and feeling uplifted and informed. Thanks
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