"Teachable Moments Lost"

This is the title of Richard Cohen's August 25 column in the Washington Post. From the piece: "For this teachable moment, Obama might have recalled an incident out of his own past when, perchance, he was racially profiled--stopped, frisked or something for being a black man, particularly a young black man. He might have recounted an anecdote that could have offered us all a glimmer of what it is like to wear your skin color--but not your two Ivy League degrees, book contract, etc.--on your face so that you feel the opprobrium and suspicion of police officers and the averted glance of trembling white ladies. No. He did nothing of the sort."