[This story was delayed by yesterday's severe storm coverage] Yesterday was the 95th anniversary of one of the greatest events in baseball history: The Negro League's Wichita Monrovians defeated the Klu Klux Klan 10-8. The Klan was being defeated in Kansas, so they agreed to the game to prove their superiority over black athletes and as a publicity stunt to bolster their rapidly dwindling membership. The game was peaceful. The umpires ruled the KKK had to use baseball bats; striking the ball with a "cross" was forbidden. The story is simply amazing . And, there is more here . While no city is perfect, Wichita was an early pioneer in civil rights. You don't hear much about the early  Dockum Sit-In because it was peaceful and, more importantly, successful. Blacks won the right to eat at lunch counters in our city. If you are looking for an alternative to the craziness, come and check out America's next great city. P.S. And, this week, tip your cap f...

During my recent trip to Texas, I was the victim of a hit-and-run driver. Because the person who caused the accident did not stop, I am going to have to pay my insurance deductible, so I am victimized two ways. As a result his item from Instapundit yesterday really hit home: In his new book, “ In Pursuit of Civility ”, British historian Keith Thomas tells the story of the most benign developments of the past 500 years: the spread of civilised manners. In the 16th and 17th centuries many people behaved like barbarians. They delighted in public hangings and torture. They stank to high heaven. Samuel Pepys defecated in a chimney. Josiah Pullen, vice-principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, urinated while showing a lady around his college, “still holding the lady fast by the hand”. It took centuries of painstaking effort – sermons, etiquette manuals and stern lectures – to convert them into civilised human beings. Reading Thomas’s book on a train recently I was gripped by a terrible ...