Ok, the Bohunk has something to say, so listen up. (as computers shut down nationwide)
Way back in grade school and high school (late 50's to 1961) my best friend lived across the street from me. He was black....still is as far as I know. Now this was in lily white Whitefish Bay WI. He was the only black in school. His father worked for the postal system and his mother was a teacher at Milwaukee East High School.
One day he was down in the dumps and I asked him what the matter was. He said some kids were giving him a bad time, using nasty names and so on. We sat down and I said to him, "Joey, you and I are the same. Think of it this way. We both get Christmas presents that are the same, only we don't know that. Your present is wrapped with green paper with snowflakes on it, and mine is wrapped with red paper with snowmen on it. We open the packages and they are the same."
"So, your wrapping is different than mine, but inside we are the same. Is your blood red? So is mine. You got 206 bones in your body, so do I. (he looks puzzled at this...hadn't been paying attention in biology class.) Everything inside you is the same as me, and everyone else. Except for Specky Halvorman who we still believe was the first test tube kid to come out of a chemistry expirement gone very wrong."
My point: I think we spend too much time paying attention to the wrapping than what is inside the package. Joey and I are still good friends. We keep in touch quite often. When we had a private memorial service for my Father after he died in 1987, there was a knock on the door, and there was Joey, then 45 years old. He came over to pay his respects. Drove all the way from Madison.
As for Specky Halvorman, the last time I talked with Joey, we both agreed that Specky was hiding out in Afghanistan and had grown a beard. The resemblence is uncanny.
Anyone for a Weenie Roast?