When somebody says something is overwritten, all overwritten really means is underreported. - Wright Thompson

All writing is trying to say something new that is true, that is both specific and universal, and that helps the reader understand something they didn't understand before, preferably about themselves.

The newspaper reporter summed up the rhetoric “on segregation all candidates agree, they support it….all five candidates tried to prove they were more racist than their opponents, a sprint to the bottom. All promising to take any measure to stop the most dangerous and immediate threat to the Mississippi way of life-which apparently was a black child who wanted to learn math. All of Hannibal’s elephants and Genghis Khan’s hordes lacked the world-destroying power of a bunch of first graders learning the alphabet and how to stay in line during the walk from recess to lunch”.

Julian and his dad were men of different times. That's how it is with fathers and sons. The act of panning a generational divide is the single most important thing either person will do in their lifetime; the relationship depends on making that leap successfully.