Considering there are probably, what, six indigenous black people in both Dakotas combined, I suspect he wasn't thinking in those terms. :)

You're stretchin' on this one, Bill. The connection doesn't quite reach. PS I'm no Daschle fan.

Just having some fun. Trent Lott's comments at Strom's birthday party were stretched to paint Lott as pro-segregation, and I'm just trying to do the same to Lott. He said schools in the 1950s were good schools. Schools in the 1950s were racially segregated, separate and unequal.

Are you implying that the matters are different because Sen. Lott *did* have racial motivations when said nice things about Sen. Thurmond's presidential run?

I think Sen. Lott was buttering up an old coot on his birthday without racist overtones. But Sen. Lott paid for his remarks because they were interpreted differently. Likewise, Sen. Daschle had no racist intent, but the implication can be interpreted differently. Don't expect much to come from this. After all, Daschle has a 'D' after his name.

I'd also like to mention that it certainly seems that Sen. Daschle wants to take us back to the past. That accusation alone has haunted many a conservative politician.

And that still begs the question what's considered a "good" school? Does that imply that there were no "good" schools in American history before segregation?

I'd say schools after segregation were still filled with racial bigotry, hatred, inequality and harrassment. Were (or are) they now considered "good" schools?

Look at Horace Maynard Middle School in Union County, TN. A couple years ago a young girl and her siblings were verbally and physically harrassed and abused by their classmates and even the teachers, because they and their parents' religion was not Christian (they were pagans). I'm assuming, since it existed after the 1950's that it is segregated and now a "good" school?

Good schools and bad schools have nothing to do with their racial makeup (at the time, mandated and enforced by the state) their religious diversity or any other dominant surface characteristic. If children recieve a good education, by caring and dedicated teachers, with disciplined leadership and involved parents - I'd say that's the definition of a "good" school. And sure, maybe kindergartens in 1953 South Dakota were segregated - and that's obviously not a desirable situation - but it doesn't necessarily follow that the school was bad, and that the students were denied a quality education.