at least our generation grew up in a post-mlk era, where things were moving the right direction, through education of young people, and change -- personally, i was *extremely* fortunate in that i grew up a miltary brat, on air natl guard and air force bases for the most part, and the military (air force in particular) is exteremely integrated, heterogeneous ... and the family structure reflected that (i.e., student populations were much more mixed than would be otherwise for the area, typically). i went to high school in the middle of the corn fields in illinois -- my town was HUGELY supported by the base - 45-50% of the HS population were military. and thus 25% were minority (read: black) -- whereas otherwise it would have been probably < 3 or 5%.

ANYWAY the real point of this was my unpleasant experience yesterday -- i dropped off our dogs at the doggie day care in westford, where the lady that lives there / runs the show was in the kitchen at the drop off point, and she asked me "if i was one of the ones that was working." i said "huh? oh... is today mlk day?" and she said "yeah, national black persons celebration day or whatever. they let some ppl not go to work today." bleagh. i left with a (permanent) different view of this 50+ year old lady :-ppp