I suppose we should say something about music now and then to make this look like an appropriate forum for this discussion. I know that there was infighting among the various groups of the civil rights movement, but it was me that was too caught up in the egalitarian aspects of it all to think that this infighting was important. I cling to lines like the one about having a dream that all God's children of all backgrounds and persuasions and chromosome shapes could sit down at the table as equals. I thought that we all really wanted to reach a point where we were judged by the content of our character(s), etc. But like everything else, as I look back, most people were just there for the party (as in merrymaking) and a large chunk of the rest were there to promote their own narrow causes. Those who truly wanted real equality for us all were always in the minority and not really prized by any of the more visible groups. The "system" that we'd like to change, I'm afraid, is as much a part of nature as food and sex. There will always be a majority of people that look out only for themselves and their own. We, like all living things, first and foremost protect our food supply (wealth) and our reproductive potential (in today's terms, also wealth). It will take mutations and a few more billion years of evolution before people like me (and you) are more than a flea on the elephant's ass. That's why these fights we get into are so maddening; we have so few allies, even among our own perceived cultures, that we have to content ourselves with the trying. A lot of brilliant people, I believe, have lost their minds over this for centuries or even millenia. So don't give up the fight - get up, stand up, or whatever you must do, but a little perspective goes a long way here.

With just a touch of wisdom, I hope, Chet