It's no

wonder that race relations don't progress any faster than

they do.

No matter

how hard we all try to get along, there are always areas

where one group simply can't see the other group's point

of view. And when we can't see and can't understand the

other guy's viewpoint - it just doesn't make any

sense to us - we tend to distrust motives.

We tend to

believe the other group is prejudiced and narrow and

doesn't want to get along. In other words, we tend to get

prejudiced and narrow and increasingly we don't want to

get along.

Two good

examples in the news these days: the John Rocker incident

and the South Carolina state flag controversy.

I'm sure

our African-American readers will correct me if I'm off

base, but I am guessing that the average black person

living everyday life and dealing with its ups and downs

is not losing a lot of sleep over what happens to the

Atlanta Braves' relief pitcher.

But there

is a hue and cry from civil rights leaders calling for

Rocker to be sent to the showers permanently because he

believed his own media image too much, shot off his mouth

and said some things that were racially divisive.

To those

who are calling for his firing, there is no way he can

redeem himself. What he said came from the heart, they

reason, and you can make him quit saying it, but you

can't make him quit feeling that way.

To them,

there is no way to interpret the insult "fat

monkey" (or the humorous locker room jab if you

believe Rocker) other than as a racially loaded term that

is indicative of a deep-seated disdain for the targeted

race.

Allowing

him to continue as a Brave constitutes a tacit

endorsement of that attitude, the reasoning goes. And

white people who call up radio talk shows, write letters

to the editor or engage in water cooler chat defending

Rocker are immediately suspect as closet racists

themselves.

He must be

fired - not traded - fired.

I think

most white people were shocked and dismayed when the

Sports Illustrated magazine came out with Rocker's

statements. But they're just as shocked by the vehemence

of the lynch mob.

There's a

growing fear among whites, and I think many people of

other ethnic backgrounds, that we're becoming so

politically correct in this society that people will face

inquisition at the hands of the thought police for the

most innocently intended words or phrases. A world in

which people can be destroyed economically for mere words

is a bit frightening to contemplate.

People in

government, maybe. People who have control over other

people's lives, sure. But a 24-year-old baseball pitcher

who said a bunch of stuff because he thought it was fun

to uphold a "bad boy" image as part of his

stage persona?

Then there

are those who rally `round the flag... the Confederate

battle flag.

I'm a

Southern boy, born and bred. But think, folks. Can you

put yourself in the other guy's place for just a minute

and imagine how black people feel when they see that

symbol.

It's one

thing in the back window of a pickup truck, but it's

another entirely when it's displayed prominently on the

state flag.

Of course,

we in Georgia can't point any fingers. Protesting civil

rights leaders are turning their attention here as well.

With the Super Bowl coming up, they're using the extra

media presence to push Georgia to drop the battle flag as

well. Heritage is a weak argument, by the way. Our flag

didn't take on the stars and bars until the 1950s, when

the legislature decided to change the flag in defiance of

the federal courts' integration orders.

I agree

with presidential candidate John McCain that South

Carolina's flag debate is no business of the federal

government. But I do hope that visionaries in that state,

and this one, will eventually figure out that there are

other ways to preserve our heritage... ways that don't

bring pain and fear to a third or more of the population.

As for

Rocker, well, I hope he learned something. I hope through

the incident he gained some sensitivity. I hope I'm right

and most people of all races have more important things

to worry about.

And I hope

the whole stupid saga doesn't mess up his fast ball.