I was at a holiday party talking with a friend when I overheard a woman behind me say the name of my wife in a conversation. I naturally started listening in and then realized that the woman, a friendly acquaintance, was talking about Raquel’s ethnicity. “I’ll tell you what,” said the woman snidely with a laugh, “she looks like a Mexican if you ask me!” (Raquel is Puerto Rican).
Those of you who follow my blog on Facebook or Twitter are well aware by now that this week, I wrote a guest column for the Washington Post called, “Why, for Southern Christians, Taking Down the Flag Isn’t Enough.” The reactions were, for the most part, positive.
When I was 14 years old, I got into a spat with my dear friend Erin Myers, thus beginning a one-month standoff between us in which we both refused to call or otherwise speak to one another. That standoff was interrupted the day after school on May 26, 1994, when she pulled out in front of an 18-wheeler and died on impact.
