To the editor:

Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, I went into Arby’s to buy a sandwich. It cost $4.99 and I had precisely five one-dollar bills. Therefore I couldn’t pay the tax and told the service representative “never mind.”

A man met me outside and said he would pay the tax. I said “no sir, I cannot accept.” He went back in and came back out and told me to go get my sandwich. It turns out he had paid for it in full.

What makes this story remarkable is this: The man buying my sandwich was African-American driving an old beat up pickup truck. I am a white registered Professional Engineer who has pulled down a six-figure salary and helped design and build some $3 billion (yes $3,000,000,000) of highway projects.

I think it is important for us to remember a quote: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

I wonder if our schoolchidren even are taught that quotation.

Walter Boyd, P.E.

Andalusia