Saturday, February 10, 2007

Springfield in the spotlight

It was a little odd to see my hometown in the national media today. Mr. Obama decided to use the historic Old State Capitol as the location to announce his presidential candidacy - which brought quite a few people here this weekend. I was listening to AM radio in my car this morning and heard a Springfield DJ interviewing international media who were here to cover the event. Pretty amazing. It made me proud of my hometown and home state.

However, it the middle of all of the excitement, I came across an article written by a writer from the local paper. It's sobering - and yet it provides some perspective on the issue of race in Springfield. It's true we're the hometown of Abraham Lincoln, but we're also home to an infamous race riot just under a century ago. Here's the link to the article - It's Not a Day to Forget Our Shame.

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