On March 6^{th (this Friday)} Lane County is sponsoring the Project Homeless Connect event at the Lane Events Center at the Fairgrounds. Last year, 1,158 "homeless and at risk of being homeless" guests attended and event co-chair Commissioner Pete Sorenson anticipates even greater attendance this year.

The one-day, one-stop event invites citizens who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless, to come and receive basic necessities and services to help them move out of homelessness. Guests are offered free medical, dental and vision checkups, hot meals, haircuts and giveaways of basic provisions. Information on housing, employment, schools, and services available for youth, families, seniors and veterans is also provided.

What if the presidential candidates exchanged race?

Think about it...Would the country's collective point of view be different?

Ponder the following:

What if the Obama's had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was divorced?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after she was severely disfigured in a car accident?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain had graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?

(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989,

igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obama's had adopted a white child?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.