Thomas is the man

Last July, I posted on Justice Clarence Thomas in response to an Ellen Goodman column where she basically stated that Thomas should be a liberal because of all the things the liberal establishment had done for him.

Last night, I watched 60 Minutes for the first time in about ten years just to see the interview with Clarence Thomas. I found Thomas to be one of the most principled public individuals I've ever witnessed in my 44 years of life.

Here's an excerpt from an article at ABC News.

"These people who claim to be progressive … have been far more vicious to me than any southerner," Thomas says, "and it is purely ideological."

Thomas talks about the virulent racism he encountered growing up in the segregated South, when blacks were considered second-class citizens and kept separate from whites by law, and he equates those attitudes with the stereotypes he believes people hold today.

"People get bent out of shape about the fact that when I was a kid, you could not drink out of certain water fountains. Well, the water was the same. My grandfather always said that, 'The water's exactly the same.' But those same people are extremely comfortable saying I can't drink from this fountain of knowledge," Thomas says. "They certainly don't see themselves as being like the bigots in the South. Well, I've lived both experiences. And I really don't see that they're any different from them."

The man hits it out of the park. Somehow, I expect a Katie Couric interview with Anita Hill to be forthcoming.