As I sat and pondered the news I'd been reading about the candidates who are competing in the Democratic and Republican primaries, all I could do was shake my head in disbelief. They don't have a clue. It doesn't matter if either Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton or Senator Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. wins in the Democratic primary. Neither of them is going to get elected. Here are my reasons why:

1. Americans will not elect a woman as President of the US. She has a chance as the Vice-President.

2. Americans will not elect an African-American as President of the US. He doesn't even stand a chance as the Vice-President.

3. Americans will not elect a person with an Islamic-sounding name as President of the US, especially after what happened in 2001.

I'm as opposed to Senator McCain being president as much as any Democrat (and I usually vote Republican) and I'm open-minded enough to give Senator Clinton or Senator Obama a fair chance. The American senior citizens however, who are in the fastest growing age group (more than 12 percent in 2000) of the US population, are against it. A perfect example is my father. In the past, he always voted Democrat. This year, he's voting Republican even though he can't stand Senator McCain.

I'm sorry to say it, but bigotry lives on in our senior citizens.

A recent AP news article published by USA Today, Liberty Bell monument to honor slaves, tells us that a new Liberty Bell monument being built in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will include a commemoration for the slaves that were quartered with President Washington when the capital of the US was there between 1790 and 1800.

This so-called accomplishment engineered by black groups in the US is a step backwards in the continued struggle for equal rights and the destruction of bigotry between white and black Americans. Anyone who has grown up in the US knows that prominent white businessmen had slaves. It's an undisputed fact. Why do we constantly need to be reminded of something that the generations living today had no control over? It's so they can continue to play the role of the impoverished and oppressed race and leverage it for political and financial gain.

Pockets of white/black bigotry continue to exist in many areas of the US. This new monument to slavery does nothing but reinforce it. The US already has enough reminders of black slavery to last for generations to come. This particular reminder is designed solely to preserve hatred.