Which Reminds Me

I vaguely remember that Miss Marken in 10th grade class led a very interesting discussion of that book, "To Kill a Mockingbird," or else it was Mark Twain's "Puddnhead Wilson," in which the laws against mixed marriages that existed in the 19th century and the attitudes of racial segregation that existed even as recently as the 20th century. We no longer have those anti-mixed marriage laws so there is no reason for me to be cast as the enemy in this discussion. Just because there is no law against my marrying that guy at youth camp whose invitation to break the rules and take a walk on the beach I declined, that does not mean I would want to break the youth camp rules just so that he can get a free green card to the U.S. and become a doctor, as if that were a good way to get into medical school. It is not a legal kind of thing. It was just that I didn't like him. He grated on my nerves with his fakey cloying friendliness. Sorry. I wasn't trying to be mean but sometimes it is better to take "No!" for an answer and not try to murder the girl later because things just didn't go the way you had planned.