Ebony and Ivory circa 1970

I was thinking about my experiences with other races and cultures as the result of the rather embarrassing comments today of our new Attorney General.

One incident sticks out in my memory. I had a very good friend in 6th grade at McGogney Elementary School in Southwest Washington D.C. We both lived in the middle of the ghetto, about 6 blocks from the area that was burned to the ground after Martin Luther King was killed. His name was Marcellus Greene. He was a gifted athlete, bright student and more rational and insightful than any current politician I can think of. He was black, I white and as was often the case we were walking down the hall between class discussing our insane world and what we could do about fixing it. We had decided that ultimately racism can only be eliminated if people of both races stopped attempting to gain advantages based on race, but how hard that seemed to be to avoid.

Marcellus and I were taken aback when the teachers we passed in the hall became very emotional after overhearing our discussion and friendly agreement on the solution. Teachers came up to us crying, congratulating us for our insight, maturity and overall cute wonderfulness.

We thought they were nuts.

Looking back, we were cute and wonderful, but we were right too. And still are. Here's to you Marcellus.