Unpalatable

On the anniversary of Martin Luther King's birthday last year, our president chose this occasion to say that it was the government's position that educational institutions such as the University of Michigan had no right to weigh ethnicity or skin color in making admission decisions, ignoring the fact that another type of affirmative action, legacy choices, explained how he got into schools like Yale and Harvard with his dismal academic record. The University of Texas, for example, had rejected him.

On this year's anniversary, Mr. Bush chose to visit King's grave to lay a wreath - and needed to employ Atlanta city buses to try to obscure the view of the thousand or more protestors who defeated the police in trying to keep them away from trying to put an end to Mr. Bush's photo opportunity - to "honor" Dr. King. Right after that, he was whisked away to a fund raising dinner in which he never uttered the fallen civil rights leader's name once.

Following that, Mr. Bush took the anniversary as his occasion to install - making an end run around the Senate - a highly controversial, extremely conservative white judge who had fought against the civil rights of Americans, who believes women do not have a choice over their own bodies, and who tried to reverse the charges against two men who had engaged in burning a cross on a black family's lawn.

Such actions are not coincidences. Mr. Bush, through his handlers, is sending a powerful message not just to the black community but to everyone in this country who believes in justice and civil rights, that he will exert his will to undo as many of the civil rights actions made possible through the blood and sweat - and at times, the very lives - of many who fought to achieve them. Every American should be offended.