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Thanks for that column on LBJ and the telling of a historical civil rights occurrence. It was very telling. I don't know if Mr Shields reads these comments, but I am hoping he would consider a column on Senator Byrd. I sure would like some insights into this Senator from the south, who seems to have overcome his past. The only thing is, one hears some pretty outrageous statements concerning Senator Byrd's past, which as every one knows, included a stint in the KKK! If not, I will do my own research into the matter. Thanks, Mr Shields for you continued honest and compassionate perspectives. They are refreshing, in spite of fewer occurrences of such viewpoints.

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Mr. Shields; I would like to thank you for your article, and your News Hour appearance in reference to Martin Luther King. When I was young, we did not have television in my house for a long time, and one of the reasons is that I managed to kill the one we had. When we did get a television it was just in time for the space race, and race riots. And I was still young enough to remember when a police dog was as big as a horse is now, snapping at the end of his chain, trying to scare me to death. Good doggy. I knew the fear close up of people with dogs put upon them, and I did not have blacks daily in my life, and still, I had no trouble sorting the good from the bad in the pictures on my television. Before integration, there was a respectable black middle class. My father went to a black barber, and brought me to that man for my first hair cut. It was a close shave, and I escaped from the ordeal with my life. And My father worked with a Black man, as a member of the International Ironworkers, and while the man was black, and able; no one called him black, but a Black Foot Indian, as they were not too proud to work with Native Americans. It seems we have covered so much ground only to become more entrenched than ever. And why is that? Why can't we see beyond the color to the human being suffering his want of respect and equality? To give anyone equality is to give him his due, and all the rest in life is open for discussion. So, why do we hate, and look with fear at every new wave of immigrant, and cannot manage to merge, blend, and mix in with the nations among us? I think it is because when we see more people coming to this land uninvited by the great majority of us, we know we will not only share rights, but resources with them. It is one thing to ask equality for the blacks and harder yet to compete with them for a place in a job, a school, or a neighborhood. I don't think we have a real problem with blacks, or any immigrant population. The problem is that we have so little to share. Our civil rights are a fraction of the rights we all should have, and do not, because in this country property has such a great share of all rights; and property, -what the nation is made of, has been privatized. Every nation should support itself, and must, if it is not going to live on the support of all other nations. But this nation is worked to the bone with nothing to show for it. It is not just the slums that are slums, but whole states. Infrastructure is neglected. Schools go begging. Healthcare is impossible, and some one in every neighborhood is losing their home and their future. I can understand if white people have an issue with black equality. It is they who have had to pay for it. It is they who have had to live on less so blacks could have a little more. We are quite justified in being angry even if the aim of our anger is incorrect. If we want liberty, rights, justice, and equality we have to worry less about making one man the equal of another, but worry more of making men the equal of property. No man with property, and no right of property can be accepted as making one greater than a man without property -and property rights. Property is a privilage so long as it serves the social purpose. The possession of property should not give one greater access to government, or more rights under the law; and property should support the people that defend it. Any person on the planet can have equal civil rights with me as their due. I object to property eating the rights and the life of this people so those who should be friends begin to seem as enemies.