Yes, there is shame in not knowing

[byronius]

11. Good teachers are the most important and powerful force possible.

Mrs. Klimko showed us slides of black men that had been chained to trees and burned; she spurred me to learn more and expunged my familial racism from me forever.

A college professor whose name escapes me made us all read Abbie Hoffman's 'Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture', an act for which she would probably be canned today, but which set me on my current journey. (Witness my avatar.)

I agree wholly with your post, but I am reminded of a screenplay agent who told me that it was not surprising that bad movies get made, but that any good movies get made at all. Behavior that was condoned and universal when I was a child is now scorned by a majority -- I could not have imagined any of this in 1972, when n-word jokes and extreme misogyny were absolutely everywhere around me, even among the people who wore the clothes and listened to the music of rebellion.

It's too slow. But it's too late for these people to rebuild from the ashes the bullcrap of prior centuries. They were in full panic of being extinguished; now they get a moment in the sun, but it will pass, and they will all be villains in history books.

Maybe sometimes the threat needs to be made real so that knowledge becomes critical for survival? God I hate saying that. I can only hope it works out like that.