I was out working in my garage this morning and, for some unknown reason, I thought of my battalion commander in Vietnam in 1971, Lt. Colonel Ernest Johnson. LTC Johnson was a Black American and one of the first (but hardly the first) of his ethnicity (have I mentioned that I hate the word "race"?) to reach that rank. He was also a marker, like Medgar Evers, Dr. King and Senator Obama, on that path that (I hope) will lead to the place where people of color will be acknowledged for their accomplishments first and for their skin tone never.