BOND: What do you think is your greatest contribution as an African American leader?

RASPBERRY: It hasn't happened yet. Watch Baby Steps, which may be my last contribution to making life better for people I care about. Perhaps showing the way that small towns can make themselves? Can will themselves into becoming communities. Maybe showing how big towns, cities, can break themselves down into manageable communities.

BOND: I was going to ask, is this likely to be successful because it happens in Okolona and not happening in Memphis?

RASPBERRY: It will happen in small towns more easily, but then we may learn how to break large towns down into smaller communities. We could build a community perhaps around an elementary school in Washington, D.C. But if we learn how to do this, if we learn how to transform our towns and our neighborhood into communities, this will be as profoundly important as any three dozen columns I've written in forty years in the business. Stay tuned.