Absolutely sad! Not all that proud of our country at the moment.

I am the guardian of two challenged African American children and their mom. Was guardian of Grandpa and Grandma. They are treated with much less compassion and love than they deserve.

To their credit, some justifiably concerned African Americans politely check my association with the two black youngsters when we are out together.

What's not ok is the number of calls I get from the pastor and church members who ask for personal favors, money, cars, etc. If I don't respond favorably (remember, these are parishioners of George's church who did NOTHING for them)I'm accused of cleaning out Georges bank account (he was broke), called a cracker and a bigot for not coming up with what they wanted.

When I had to leave the grandma's funeral to remove the grandson with severe mental challenges (mom was kicked out of the dad's service due to disruptions) so that the daughter could be at the service, I was accused of thinking I was too good to be there.

What all this means is, you have to be careful to stereotype all members of any race or culture.

Individual recognition is getting increasingly hard in this "cookie cutter" world.

We need to judge people for who they are, and treat every living person as one of value.

Best personal regards to EVERYONE.

Russ