Obviously, this is an important case to the community

The evidence is in. Everyone has had their say. The press, with few exceptions, has managed to avoid telling the public anything they don't want them to know. And the judge has - instead of making a decision - told the attorneys to get together tomorrow and try to settle things.

Excuse me. That is why the judge gets a salary - to make decisions. Not to put off the inevitable of actually saying the NAACP is wrong about something. Because they are wrong. There was no racism in the decision. There was a lot of betrayal of the fine people who gave up a good bit of their lives to study and make the best decision they could. But, there was no racial intent.

The judge asked early on if someone understood the word patronizing. Jeff Woods, who is so enchanted with the plaintiffs that he must have choked when he was told to try and act like a real reporter for a change, actually thought it meant the judge thought the Board was patronizing. Perhaps, but which is patronizing: Telling families they have a choice, or telling families their children have to be bussed for two hours each school day to prove a point about how Nashville was twenty years ago? Or worse, to keep poor children out of Pearl Cohn?

Mr. Woods cites studies at Vanderbilt that schools containing more than 38% poverty are bad learning environments. No kidding. Hold the presses. Did he mention that according to the latest figures from the State Metro Schools are at 75.6% poverty. Did he, or the other plaintiffs (because he acts like he is one) explain how it is that 75.6% can be spread around so that no school has more than 38%? Did he even mention that fact, knowing it as he does? He quit being a reporter some time ago and has settled for being a demagogue.

Now, the judge has said that the outcome is important to Nashville. Gosh, really? How did he know? Yes, it is important to Nashville. If the NAACP wins this, if the schools must make the NAACP happy every time they make a decision, the judge will have taken the political process away from the voters and given it to a group of people who do not even represent the majority of the people they claim to represent. Because guess what. The majority of the families who were given a choice chose to go to schools close to home. They do not want their kids bussed to prove someone else's point.

If the NAACP wins they will set the agenda for how schools will be run in the future. But, they do not purport to speak for the community, only for a part of the community.

It is just sickening.