I have been around the dark side, too. At 12, I rode a city bus to school in Biloxi, Ms.: the only rider between the back door and the front, with African Americans falling all over in the remaining little space. If there were only African Americans or Latinos at the bust stop, the bus didn't stop.

I saw a couple of big rednecks jump out of a library window and beet the daylights out of a black grandmother and her two small grandchildren. I saw Mack Charles Parker's testicles nailed to a courthouse.

I had the first mixed society band in Kentucky, and saw the viciousness many nights; particularly at drunken fraternity parties.

Believe me, the "kinder, gentler" comment was my reference to interpersonal relationships, family issues and a slower pace.

I'll never forget the rest...


Russ