Speaking of our representatives not paying taxes, Senator Robert Brown, a Democrat representing Macon, wondered whether he was on the list of senators not paying his back taxes. He claimed to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution that he has filed an extension for his 2006-2007 taxes.

 Brown proceeded to lambast Senator Eric Johnson, a Republican representative from Savannah, on the senate floor; he showed an old picture of Johnson riding in the St Patrick’s Day parade in Savannah wearing a green shamrock shirt and flying the old Georgia flag on the back of his car.

 The implication was that Johnson was nothing but a racist.

 Brown called Johnson a "bloodsucker" because he introduced this bill.

 Johnson’s bill would have affected both parties; it’s bad enough that Brown could not defend the merits of this bill in spite of any tax problems he may have, but the fact that he chose to depict Senator Johnson as a racist is inexcusable.

 We have met Senator Johnson; he is not a racist.

 How much longer will black leaders, who find themselves in a corner because of misconduct, play the race card?

 We have the right to hold all politicians up to the same principles, no matter what nationality or color they are.

 We fought a civil war and endured decades of terribly unjust Jim Crow laws. We as a nation have overcome all of that and are better for it.

 We do not need any more race-baiting by any group in this country. If you’re wrong, just say you’re wrong; don’t blame it on something that exists in the minds of a minority of misguided people. Accept the consequences for your own actions.