Two days early on the prediction!

Still pressed for time, allen, so this will be relatively brief, but let me note that your cut and paste from Wikipedia is full of notes that "citation is needed." In other words, a good deal of the information is probably no better than hearsay. You might be interested in my personal experience with Ken Blackwell. Back when he was the state treasurer, I was able to secure his services as the keynote speaker at the Emancipation Celebration in Gallipolis, Ohio, which is the oldest continuous celebration of the EP, dating back to a celebration on Sept. 22, 1863, the first anniversary of the preliminary proclamation. I've been involved with the Gallipolis event for about 20 years and in that time have been instrumental in scheduling about ten of their keynote speakers, including President McDavis one year. But, I digress . . . when Blackwell spoke he did a masterful job of talking about his own family's history from slavery through Reconstruction and Jim Crow. He talked a lot about his faith and intertwined a number of relevant biblical quotes into his talk. He talked about how important Christian faith had been in the struggle for freedom and civil rights. It was a very masterful talk and many in attendance said it was the best keynote address they had heard at this event over the years. I tell you this so that you can get a little better sense of the man than you might see from a distance. Now, I'm not saying the Blackwell hasn't made some mistakes in his political career, or that he is above criticism. What I'm saying is that the man has a good heart and that he's trying his best to improve the lot of all Americans. You can disagree with his approach and his solutions to problems, but I think you should give him the benefit of the doubt on his sincerity. His campaign for governor was not well organized and you can criticize him for some of the mudslinging that went on, but to say he is a "sell out" is just not accurate at all, IMHO. Let me note, finally, that he won the GOP primary and that many folks all over the state who "didn't look like him" voted for him to be their standard bearer over people who did "look like them."

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree about these men. Perhaps, I'll revisit this later, but for now I think I'll just leave it as a friendly disagreement. Perhaps, future developments will prove one of us right in our assessments. BTW, I'm not sure if I told you, but though I'm a white guy, I now have a 2-year-old granddaughter who is part African American as my youngest daughter married a black guy. We've had a number of interesting family discussions about race issues when we get together for family gatherings. Our son-in-law's father, Ron, who spent his first three years of college at Howard, has been very open about the discrimination he faced growing up in Louisville, Ky. I had to know him for awhile, though, before he would open up and talk about these things. I'll end with this lighthearted statement. When I did a DNA study for genealogical purposes it came back that I'm .3 percent African. Since then, Ron greets me as "Bro!"

+1

On an unrelated note but to bring this thread back to its original intent, ORU is expected to name Baylor Assistant Coach Paul Mills as their new Head Coach. Ok, back to your discussion.