Kiva is here for a sleepover. We have had a lovely day, mostly outside since the weather is fabulously balmy. Light breeze, just right temperature, a few clouds, blue skies. Todays events included a trip to the park with Ken and I, where there were many other children with their parents. Very friendly group, alert to the behaviour of their children. Very peaceful.

Kiva is doing story time with Ken right now. She is his little shadow, just loves to stand next to him and talk while he is doing anything at all. Her spontaneous affection is so touching, and the smiles that light her up just erase any negativity for at least a 500 foot radius.

We read an editorial in the New York Times this morning about the sad history of segregation in the military. Rooseveldt had the opportunity to integrate the miliary during WWII, but elected not to do so. The editorial was very critical of him and the consequences of that decision. Rooseveldt did many wonderful things for the working class that took great courage and energy on his part, and I suppose that he should be forgiven if he did not always do the right thing, since he so often did right. However, the consequences of this decision were so pernicous, that it cannot be hidden under the "context of other accomplishments" excuse. With the military officially segregated, the south was able to export their unlovely culture of hatred to the rest of the country. We had not realized it before, but this is almost certainly the origin of the segregated public housing conditions that Ken experienced in South San Francisco. Also likely the cause of the ugly covenants and restrictions that were placed on single family homes of the era. There is something even more repugnant that usual about segregation in the military during wartime. Segregation is always wrong and mean, but it is so excessively mean spirited when individuals risking their lives in defense of the United States are simultaneously made to feel unwanted and inferiour.

There are times when we (Ken and I) believe that bigots (of any kind) have some kind of genetic difference from the rest of the human population. Sadly most of us can be unkind in the abstract, advocating or allowing unjustice to exist as long as we don't have to be personally involved, or even better to not have to really really "know" about it. However, when it comes to individuals, what I consider to be a "normal" human being is unable to be deliberately unkind on a human to human basis. A true bigot however (the genetic defectives we postulate) can be coldly cruel, both pysically and verbally, to a child, a stranger, an old person etc. simply because of some perceived difference. This can be seen in those dreadful photographs of the harrassment of young students trying to integrate southern schools. The sheer bestial ugliness of the shouting individuals surrounding those brave souls is disheartening to use an inadequate description. How someone can look into the face of another human and tell them they cannot have a decent education, a decent place to live, a living wage job, a time of unmolested spiritual observance, or a loving human relationship is just unfathomable to me. There has to be something missing in a person who can act this way.