Run Haley! Run! A political opportunity is a terrible thing to waste.

We are in day six of the Egyptian uprising-revolution-crisis-protests, whatever you want to call it, and my man Hosni still refuses to call it quits. (Hillary, I saw you on television tonight and you must have aged 10 years since the last time I saw you. Oh well, that's why they pay you the big bucks; to figure out how A-merry-ca is going to balance on the fence with this one. )

Still, it's nice to see that your boy is bringing the economy back from the dead. I know that the wingnuts are hoping and praying that he fails, but hey, such is life in the A-merry-can political arena: The other guy can do no good.

And speaking of the political arena; I see that Mississippi's finest is considering a run for the White House. Unfortunately for him he has some...well.... issues.

"Barbour argues that his generation of political leaders attended integrated schools, but his 1965 high school class -- he was valedictorian -- was segregated. He enrolled at the University of Mississippi three years after a bloody battle in which federal troops and marshals were ordered on campus to enforce the court-ordered enrollment of James Meredith as Ole Miss' first black student.

"I went to integrated college, never thought twice about it," Barbour said this past fall in a webcast interview with Peter M. Robinson of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, with whom he served in the Reagan administration.

It's true that the university was integrated, but just barely: Though Ole Miss had an enrollment of at least 3,300, the yearbook shows fewer than a dozen black students when Barbour arrived as a freshman in 1965.

One of them, Cleveland Donald Jr., said he didn't know the future governor, who joined a fraternity, got involved in student government and helped organize campus concerts. With no chance of joining a fraternity himself, Donald tried to attend a meeting of a Christian student group.

"I went to one meeting and they moved off campus because several of them did not want me there," recalled Donald, now a University of Connecticut history professor.

Barbour said he remembers sitting next to a pleasant young black woman in a literature class, and that she let him borrow her notes.

"I had a great experience," he said of his time in Oxford, adding after a slight pause, "I didn't study too hard." [Source]

But all is not lost. It looks like Haley might have had a "road to Damascus" moment. No blinding lights for Haley, just good sound politics.

"Over the recent Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Barbour used emphatic language to address Mississippi's place in the civil rights area: "Deplorable actions including the murder of innocent people, young men in service to a cause that was right, will always be a stain on our history."

As part of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides, Barbour plans to host a reception honoring the activists. And this month, Barbour used his final "State of the State" address to say this is the year for Mississippi to build a long-delayed museum dedicated to the civil rights movement.

"The civil rights struggle is an important part of our history," he said, "and millions of people are interested in learning more about it."

Amen Haley. I love when folks are willing to learn.

Finally, speaking of learning, I hope that you Negro parents will try to take the time to prepare your children to learn in school. I know it's hard, but please try. Folks are tired of trying to come up with innovative ways to help your children learn. From Hip Hop in Minnesota to straight up segregation in Pistolvania; it's one gimmick after another.

Whatever it takes I guess, but I can't help but think about the Ivy League ball player,Dau Jok, who had to -literally- write in the sand in school because they had no learning materials. No such excuse here. All it takes is just good old fashion work. In the classroom and at home. Remember, a "mind is a terrible thing to waste". Just ask Haley.