Accept that environment compromises values far more than values do their number on environment.

Mine was an easy ride compared to Jackie Robinson's.

If I'm remembered for having done a few good things and if my presence here has sparked some good energies, that's plenty.

I defend myself by improving myself.

But perhaps more important, as someone wishing to make a comment or two about contemporary life and values, I don't have to dig through libraries or travel to exotic lands to arrive at a view of our modern situation refracted through the lens of the preindustrial world, or the uncommercialized, unfranchised, perhaps unsanitized-and therefore supposedly more "authentic"-perspective ofthe Third World. Very simply, this is because that "other" world, as alien as if separated by centuries in time, is the one from which I came

I knew what it was to be uncomfortable in a movie theater watching unfolding on the screen images of myself - not me, but black people - that were uncomfortable.

Jackie Robinson is a true legend.