I can't figure out how or why I would be drawn to a story about Lester Maddox, the ex-Governor of Georgia and a staunch segregationist until his death today at age 87.

I think it's because I just can't understand him (or people like him) and his deep-seated convictions and beliefs. He is the exact opposite of everything my parents raised me to be, everything my church cultivated in me, everything my teachers taught me to be, everything my friends and colleagues and acquaintances encourage me to keep on being. I don't understand how he (or anyone) could believe that blacks are inferior to whites, that segregation is justified by the Christian Scriptures, that civil rights workers are bad, that the Ku Klux Klan is so great. I don't understand how this man got elected governor of an American state. It doesn't surprise me; I just don't understand it. I don't understand how and why he then hired and promoted blacks in his government. I don't yet completely understand his statement: "I think forced segregation is illegal and wrong. I think forced racial integration is illegal and wrong. I believe both of them to be unconstitutional." Still working on parsing out that one . . .

But like most things that I don't understand -- including quantum physics, the human body, black holes, the Supreme Court, reality shows, my friend C -- I am utterly fascinated . . .