A Couple Of Years I Taught In

I'm Seventy-six Now. I'm At A Stage In My Life Where I Feel A Lot Of Affection And Regard For Women, And I Felt The Need To Make This Clear In Some Way. I Don't Know How They'll Feel When They Read It, But I Feel Okay About It.

What I Am Finding Now Is That My Audience Is Getting Younger As I Get Older, Which Is A Very Good Thing As You Know - You Don't Want Them To Get Older As You Get Older.

I Am Aware Of The Changes, But In No Sense Am I Believer That We Live In A Post-racial Society. That's A Description Of Our Inheritance And That Is Theirs, Which Is Inescapable. It Is Doesn't Matter If You Are From New England Or Mississippi. You're An American. It Doesn't Matter If You Are White, Black, Brown, Or Asian. It Is Part Of American Society. You'd Have To Be Blind, Deaf, Or Dumb Not To Know It. The Emphasis On Color Or The Fear Of It, Is All Part Of The Same Dark Flower. I Am Trying To Point To That And To Bring It All The Way Back From Senegal.

But Really, It Was Reading That Led Me To Writing. And In Particular, Reading The American Classics Like Twain Who Taught Me At An Early Age That Ordinary Lives Of Ordinary People Can Be Made Into High Art.

Public Libraries Are The Sole Community Centers Left In America. The Degree To Which A Branch Of The Local Library Is Connected To The Larger Culture Is A Reflection Of The Degree To Which The Community Itself Is Connected To The Larger Culture.