I kinda understand what First lady Michelle Obama meant when she said those horribly sounding words regarding her pride in America. I have been a proud member of this community since 1992, when on a warm June day my father and I left Los Angeles heading north, despite me thinking we were headed East to Riverside County. I’ve seen this town undergo a major metamorphosis  … from the Good Ole Boy, honkytonk, No blacks allowed after dark (Hello, Taft) bumpkin town to a more open minded, less myopic thinking community in which a black, former Democrat can maintain a highly rated radio program. I sincerely believe my show does not succeed in 1992 as it thrives now in 2016 (In which “TRBS” recently bested that other radio station and female host in EVERY single demographic!). And despite the inferiority complex that this town has hanging around our collective neck like an albatross, we’re constantly in the national spotlight, always making somebody’s list for futility: worst air, traffic, eating habits, heart health, ugly women etc., etc. But now District Attorney Lisa Green firmly drew a line in the sand and let the word go forth that Bakersfield will always fight back against hate crimes against anyone, in this case a local Sikh. I need not review the facts, but suffice it to say that 40-year-old David Hook made the wrong mistake in the wrong place at the wrong time. A period when such acts must not only be prosecuted but held up as examples. Is it fair to Hook? No, but neither was it fair for Balmeet Singh to walk away from a burger joint with Hook’s soda dripping down his face and clothes. Green and her crew should prosecute Hook, as she has promised, to the greatest extent of the law and let everyone from Maine to Hawaii know that Bakersfield, California  does not and will not tolerate small-minded, 20th century bigotry and hate speak. Way to go, Lisa. Way to go!!!