Have you ever read “The Emperor’s New Clothes”? In the story. the emperor parades before his subjects naked all the while thinking he is wearing magical clothes.

So it is with Jim Carignan.

In his latest column, Carignan explains that the looting, rapes, robberies and killings in New Orleans was racism rearing its ugly head. Shame on us common folk mistaking this for criminal activity. In order to save us from the shame of feeling ignorant, Carignan advises that racism “… is not an easy concept for a white person to grasp.”

He brings up tax cuts in order to take a shot at the group whose tuition payments have provided him with a comfortable living over the years – the rich. One has to wonder why he did not opt to teach the poor who enroll in community colleges?

In previous columns, Carignan has shown a lack of ability to understand concepts that affect the less fortunate. He seems perplexed by the Wal-Mart concept, $13 plus limited benefits is double $7 and no benefits. He fails to grasp that pushing through the $2 million community center in his last act as a city councilor helped those in the inner city at the expense of our fixed-income elderly property taxpayers.

Lastly, upon achieving his goal of diversifying Lewiston, he fled to the safety of his front porch in a coastal community overlooking the ocean. Now, this is a concept we are all familiar with – white flight.

Robert E. Macdonald, Lewiston