I wrote

It's just been my experience that the fans of teams with Indian-themed mascots are cheering for their team, not trying to hold Native Americans down.

King replied

I don't think that's in dispute

But it is in dispute. Your column started off with a rant against the fans dressed up in Cleveland Indians-themed costumes, to which you said was not OK for them to do.

My point was that these fans were dressing up as their team's mascot to root for their team, not to show their racist disrespect for Native Americans.

We can argue until the letters pages reach the hundreds over whether Chief Wahoo is a racist logo - and I certainly see many posters' point that it is - but to rail on the fans for embracing that logo is unfair. What are they supposed to do ... come to the game dressed as Cleveland from Family Guy? (forget about the racist implications that would hold)

As you mentioned, King, in one of your reply posts - the fans of the Cleveland Indians are not racist by wearing Indians gear. And despite your self-serving statement to the contrary, intent is a core of racism. People are convicted of hate crimes because they intended to commit acts of violence based on race. I understand that there's such a thing as institutional racism, where people don't even realize they're being racist by simply conforming to societal norms that carry implicit racist elements. But that's more of an unfortunate byproduct of racism than racism standing on its own.

I certainly appreciate your example, but your coworker's decision to not rent to black families is clearly intentional racism - despite what his motivations were, he clearly intended to treat black families differently than he treated white families.

Look, I'm not saying that the Chief Wahoo isn't a racist logo/mascot. I'm not saying that nobody's racist, or that all these people who have beefs with Native American mascots need to get a life. I'm simply trying to preserve my initial point that the fans of the Cleveland Indians are not racist merely because they don Indians gear, including dressing up as the logo, because racism is not their intent. They are cheering for a team, not making a political statement that everyone seems to want to project on to them.

The money is what matters. And isn't that what it's always been about in college football? "Big time" college football is and always has been all about schools and TV networks and advertisers making boatloads of moolah off of the "free" labor offered by the 99% of players who won't turn pro and probably won't graduate (or if they do, will do so with a relatively worthless degree and a lifetime of lingering injuries). A flawless system for crowning a National Champion won't change that - in fact, it will only exacerbate it with more money, and thus more exploitation of these young athletes.

I, for one, am more interested in curing the grave injustice of these players not earning a percentage of the ridiculous money they're generating before I'm going to worry about the grave injustice of the fans not being rewarded with a "true" national champion.

In the meantime, I'm just happy watching Notre Dame get absolutely decimated week after week.

it's such overkill, it's such a three ring circus, that i can't even bear to watch.

i'm waiting for a candidate to break free from the platitudes and rehearsed focus-grouped missives. hillary clinton is running on one thing - ambition. she doesn't want to change washington or rescue america from its nadir of international standing ... she wants to sit in the chair her husband was blown in for her own personal redemption. anyone who can't see this is blind, and is too easily persuaded by people who tell them what they want to hear.

obama is the only candidate that is in favor of effectuating change. i like it that he appears uncomfortable in a debate, as only professional snakeoil salespeople would be comfortable in such a setting. it's ridiculous, totally unrealistic, and completely irrelevant to one's ability to lead and to govern.

when are people gonna wake up and realize that hillary is not the answer? god i hope it's soon.

is that if he should get elected (quite a longshot, but not impossible), he would only further serve to widen the culture gap that bush created between the right and left. the absolute LAST thing this country needs right now is a theocrat as the head of state.

the world is in a perilous situation now precisely because of religious zealoutry. islamist fascism poses a real threat, and combating it with good ol' fashioned jesus juice (as many americans would prefer) is the worst solution possible. we need a candidate that will do something to bring americans closer together, and the kind of religious influence that clearly permeates huckabee's message will only widen the current rift. only huckabee truly believes his message is right, and lots and lots of uneducated, unintelligent people believe his brand of aw-shucks down home bigotry.

it's scary. it's dangerous. and it needs to be cut off.