DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host: And now, time to hear from the comments you have written.</s>DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host: Michael Zurich(ph), one of the U.S. diplomats who received a creative dissent award at the State Department, took issue with our report on the awards ceremony. He felt our correspondent mistakenly implied that he had volunteered to serve in Baghdad to move ahead with his career. He wrote, I volunteer because I still have, a perhaps, quaint and corny view of duty and service that moves me to seek to work where I am needed.</s>DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host: Several listeners wrote in after last week's story about the visit by First Lady Laura Bush to a school in the impoverished African nation of Mali. Reporter Addie Goss described how the U.S. Embassy oversaw efforts to spruce up the school before Mrs. Bush arrived. After the visit, the embassy removed the equipment it had loaned to the school for the event. Listener Toby Mailman(ph) of Brooklyn wrote it's infuriating and disgusting that the first lady has to have the reality of the poor schools in Mali hidden from her by the U.S. Embassy during her visit there. As an envoy of the U.S. government, Miss Bush should see the drastic reality of the poor conditions under which the children of Mali are expected to study.</s>DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host: If you like to weigh in on our stories, go to our Web site, npr.org, click on contact us and be sure to tell us how to pronounce your name.
A look at the life of Inez Baskin, who wrote for The Montgomery Advertiser. She was able to write for a national audience, covering the civil rights struggle, including the Montgomery bus boycott. Debbie Elliott speaks with lawyer Fred Gray.