On page four of the Talon Marks’ last issue we included a little online poll In the bottom corner of the paper. Little did we know that little poll would be the biggest thing in the newspaper.

The poll posed the question “How will you celebrate MLK day?” and among the possible answers we included answers that ranged from sleeping and celebrating to attending a KKK rally.

They day after publication our newsroom was flooded with phone calls and e-mails from angry Cerritos College students and faculty members who were shocked that we included the response go to a KKK rally.

“That wasn’t funny,” they exclaimed. “Instead of making jokes, why don’t you promote events that celebrate the life of Dr. King?”

Making jokes? Is it so hard to believe that there are still racist people residing in the United States?

It wasn’t so unbelievable the first African-American mayor of Newport, Tennessee who had a wooden cross burned on his front lawn.

It wasn’t even unbelievable to the citizens of Newport when they held a diversity festival to protest against a Ku Klux Klan rally that was held on Jan. 20, Dr. King’s birthday.

The angry individuals who blasted the Talon Marks were right.

It is not funny.

Its not funny that 40 years after Kings infamous “I have a Dream” speech close-minded ignorant people are still using intimidation tactics and violence to enforce their twisted beliefs on others.

Its not funny that people every where cannot live in peace with their neighbors.

Refusing to acknowledge racism does not mean that it does not exist.

Yes it is true that America has come along way from the separatist mind state of the 1960’s but we still have a long way to.