I am reading your piece from a rural part of Tanzania, where I spent a fair bit of time as an adventure traveler. As a Southern-born white who grew up with two moms, one of them Black, and steeped in both the culture of the Deep South and to civil rights supporting parents, I have a slightly different view. The Stones grew into prominence when I was a child. Their music never captured me (I love classical a lot more) but as I've aged, about the only thing I really appreciate about Jagger is how he's kept himself in shape. Your article suffers from the same problem as some of my longer ones; too many of your commenters, as you point out, aren't reading it to understand. There are some deep and important themes here, and to my eye they are well thought out and presented. We as Dear Reader don't have to bloody well agree with you to be made to think and consider. The point is to think, and to turn those ideas around for a while, and look at information from a different viewpoint. That to me is precisely where we benefit. I do not need to agree with all you say to learn from your thinking; I think you have made some excellent points and they are very well thought out. Americans have a terrible time with self-assessment and there are plenty of opportunities in your piece to do just that. Well done, for my part.