Thank you for clarifying that you were responding as if I had personally pushed your hot buttons. When we post, it is impossible to know the hot buttons of the many people who might read our words.

I understand your apology wasn't meant to include me, but I do appreciate the clarification nonetheless.

I once met Percy Sutton, who told a very interesting story about his early days of trying to find advertisers for his Inner City Broadcasting radio station, WLIB. One of the corporations he approached with his "big sell" campaign was Dannon yogurt. After several attempts to meet with their representatives, who consistently refused to meet with him, he was finally able to get in touch with someone who was willing to tell him why he was having such difficulty arranging a meeting with them. Their reason for not meeting with him was simple: black people didn't eat yogurt.

If you are more comfortable with anecdotes rather than facts (I don't do statistics), I hope this helps you understand that you and truly are saying the same thing. Perhaps the barrier to our understanding one another is simply a matter of style.

Best wishes to you.