These days...

  'In the old days we ranked as a nation of patient, put-upon, outraged, insolence swallowing, good-natured, all enduring moral cowards -- and willing to put up with anything, rather than have a "scene"
and get laughed at. The foreign tourists spoke softly and politely, some dreadfully plain truths about us, but the facts were at hand to justify them. Mr. Goodwin's single handed fight with a railway company -- a fight which was victorious, and at once changed the whole American Railway System from the position of public master to public servant ---makes plain the fact that the nation of moral cowards still exists; for the tyrannical offense which fired the Crusader-spirit of Mr. Goodwin was one which had been of daily occurrence on our railways for thirty years -- and swallowed by the victim every time --- swallowed and generally with meekness. We are always blaming our tyrants; whereas the blame does not lie mainly with the tyrant, but with the citizen: for in a republic a tyrant cannot exist if the citizen do a citizen's duty and individually resent and punish every infringement of his rights.' Mark Twain 'Life on the Mississippi' published 1883.

   ..  Mark Twain's works, should they be banned, maybe just ban them from young people's eyes in our age of enlightenment? His  'racism' though not evident in 'Life on the Mississippi' is revealed rather surprisingly for me, in his otherwise awesome book called 'Roughing It' published in 1872. Native Americans and African Americans might get exposed to language that hurts one's pride, all of our pride. I think we have come a long way with still a long way to go. Very grateful for the work of Mark Twain and hope that as long as their is a Red White and Blue.. United States of America that he is held strongly as a voice of the heart and soul of our history. I hope his work is never banned.

   His experiences of the 1860's traversing the USA by Stagecoach, the stories, experiences on the way.. from his descriptions of Utah.. look out Mormons you wouldn't want to read this. To his adventures in Virginia City, in the Nevada Territory, his close calls with getting rich, bad luck, the murderous
life style of the Wild West .. I think it was the first 29 burials in the Virginia City cemetery were all victims of murder. From there to virgin Lake Tahoe which he proceeds to burn down almost the entire forest accidentally..  Gold Mining in the Sierras.. on to San Francisco where I can't even remember his adventures there.. surviving 'the Great Earthquake' oh yes that one.. what was it 1866? Then on to Hawaii, the Sandwich Islands, too much incredible journey. ... and he comes back to SF what does he decide to do? Decides he is going to be a lecturer.. rents a big SF Opera house convinces many friends to buy tickets.. positions friends who promise to laugh loudly at his jokes... it all works!

   The Racism of the 1870's is not the Racism of today .. we have come a long long way. We grow, we emerge, many people grew up with racism, grew up emerging from the previous generations misconceptions. Mistakes of youth, perceptions when we are young that gradually get shed through
being confronted with living truth... other people.