A thought struck me out of the blue on MLK day. The assasination of Martin Luther King, Jr. gave me my first real taste of bigotry.
I grew up in Manchester, CT in the 1960s. Located two towns west of Hartford, Manchester was a pretty ‘white bread’ community, most of the workforce split between United Aircraft (now United Technologies) and the several insurance companies headquartered in Hartford, then known as the Insurance City.
I had very little interaction with ‘diversity’, but I was taught to treat all people equally, and have tried to live up to that standard.
When MLK was shot, I was a junior at Manchester High School. I was sitting in driver ed class when we got the news, the teacher said, and I quote, “Well, we got rid of THAT troublemaker.”
The fact that I remember that statement TO THIS DAY, speaks to its effect on me.
– RTR
Real Time Rick 
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