"Do their thing?" Have you ever been to a "march" such as this and watched it get out of hand? The KKK, Nazi youths and others do have a legal right to assemble, protest and "march," provided they aren't violent or incite violence.

After working and living in Texas for 4 years, I'm not surprised you say that this deal "means nothing." Perhaps not to you or me, but I wonder how our black starting QB feels about it? You know, the kid who we say "can't throw the deep ball," "doesn't know the playbook," etc.?

Having said that, please know I am NOT at all saying you're racist. As a sinner of the worst kind, I can only judge myself, and for me and my family I have the responsibility to not be apathetic about behavior like this, especially when it also occurs at LSU, in Calif., and at
UT-Austin sporting events and rallies.

I'm only responding to your post because you're living there now. And I'm fairly certain you'd agree that one doesn't need to spend a lot of time in Texas (particularly at football games) before you witness first-hand just how blatant racial hatred is "out there."

You know, we'll rant for weeks about how it's totally unacceptable to even once boo ANY player at LSU, including a white QB who at times appears to be playing catch with some invisible receivers that exist only in his mind. We say it will hurt his feelings, adversely affect his already-shattered confidence and we should direct any booing to LSU's coaches and their vexing play-calling.

Know what? I totally agree that it's never OK to boo our players, period. But it's also not OK to simply brush aside this "meaningless" little rally.

The main reason, IMHO, is that overall we're much better than that--and so is LSU. You only have to go 26 pages into our current football Media Guide to find a feature on LSU's on-campus African-American Cultural Center. And it's not just window-dressing. Ask any of our players (and their parents) and they will tell you the Center is very important to them. So are the academic advisers and the work they do to help all LSU student-athletes.