Hope Against Racism

He was a white man in a Confederate flag T-shirt come to a rally of the Ku Klux Klan. She was a face in the crowd, a black teen-ager who wanted to ``verbally harass him.'' But the crowd became a mob. They descended upon him, pummeled him to the ground, started stomping him with their feet and hitting him with signposts. And Keshia Thomas faced a decision: to join the mob or to be …

…and understand that he would have deplored their violence and applauded Keshia's choice. That a scattered few do not, that some in Ann Arbor have been heard grumbling that she should have left the man to his fate, only speaks of how far they have drifted from their own humanity. And of the crying need to get back. Keshia's choice was to affirm what they have lost. Keshia's choice was human. Keshia's choice was hope.