Subject: Frank Kelly: I want to make it clear that I do not know Mr. Kelly personally. With that being said, Larry, I want to comment on your comment that he is a racist. From what you reported on your web-site, I think he is just the opposite. In trying to "keep it fair" and not "single out one group, i.e. "black histrory month" Then he is being fair to all. The nation should take that approach. God forbid we have a white history month, or white miss america... and so on... equal rights for all means exatly that.

RESPONSE: Thanks for raising an important question. Leaving aside the accepted reality that frank THE RACIST kelly is a racist...suspect everyone in the room at the time of his comments knows kelly to be a racist; this issue of whether a focus on Black History Month is NOT equal rights at all as it singles out one group for special consideration is one that many people of good will disagree on.

The reality is that for most of my life what we have had is “white history” and an all “white miss america.” If there is to be some honest balance and respect for all peoples; there needs to be some remedial effort to right the wrong. When enough is really enough, people of good will can disagree. THE RACIST kelly just ain’t one of those people of good will.

While people of color have come along way in my life time in terms of reaching Martin Luther King’s dream...which should be all of our dream...we have a long way yet to go. The words of Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter say it best; IT IS A WISE MAN WHO SAID THAT THERE IS NO GREATER INEQUALITY THAN THE EQUAL TREATMENT OF UNEQUALS.

To sit down to play the game of Monopoly and before starting state that you own Park Place and Boardwalk, but from here on out, we will play the game as equals...most sane folks would declare that to be unfair....well, at least those who aren’t wealthy Republicans. We as members of a community that promises to its citizens “fairness, and equality of opportunity” have an obligation to the wonderful promise that America has been to the world, to make sure that our children, black, white, rich, poor; in the race (game) of life, start at the same starting line...not that they finish at the same place (that’s Marxism), but that they start with an equal opportunity to succeed. Poverty and racism place many children way back behind the starting line.

Educators have an obligation to bring all children up to the same life starting line so that they may reach for the American promise of opportunity...and that is what Black History Month attempts to do. Merely mouthing the words equality while you have in your pocket the cards for Park Place and Boardwalk is just another aspect of the Republic CON. Naked racism dressed in lame palliatives of specious rationality.