I hope none of you Pilgrims were surprised by Geraldine Ferraro's bigotry...

........ regarding Obama this last weekend. Racism is a blood sport in Metro New York tri-state area and Long Island. Ole Pecoz spent over twenty years in a totally and comfortably integrated US Air Force before settling in an integrated San Antonio Texas thirty years ago.

Then I had cause to spend six years on Long Island in the early '90's and found bigotry and racism to be alive and well. Neighborhoods were 'restricted', mortgages were 'red lined', and general prejudices ran plumb hot! I dined in Gotti's neighborhood where no black man dared appear, in Jewish neighborhoods and restaurants, and visited mostly in all white neighborhoods where Realtors were physically threatened if they dared to bring minority home buyers in to look around.

I was amazed to find the ultra-liberal North East to be the last major hold out against integration in this country! Now comes Ferraro --- her bigoted words this weekend were nothing new! As pointed out by Ben Smith in Politico.com today:

A Ferraro flashback

"If Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race," she said.

Really. The cite is an April 15, 1988 Washington Post story (byline: Howard Kurtz), available only on Nexis.

Here's the full context:

Placid of demeanor but pointed in his rhetoric, Jackson struck out repeatedly today against those who suggest his race has been an asset in the campaign. President Reagan suggested Tuesday that people don't ask Jackson tough questions because of his race. And former representative Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that because of his "radical" views, "if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race."

Asked about this at a campaign stop in Buffalo, Jackson at first seemed ready to pounce fiercely on his critics. But then he stopped, took a breath, and said quietly, "Millions of Americans have a point of view different from" Ferraro's.

Discussing the same point in Washington, Jackson said, "We campaigned across the South . . . without a single catcall or boo. It was not until we got North to New York that we began to hear this from Koch, President Reagan and then Mrs. Ferraro . . . . Some people are making hysteria while I'm making history."

So why is anybody surprised that she would mouth the same words twenty years later! Ole Pecoz sure ain't!!!!