I want to discuss briefly a back story related to the Ralph Northam scandal that is still boiling in Virginia.

You’ve heard about it, yes? Gov. Northam, a Democrat, has tried to explain away why his medical school page — with his name on it — contains a picture of two men, one of whom is in black face, the other is dressed in a Ku Klux Klan get up.

Northam’s first response was to apologize for the picture and to take responsibility for posing as one of the two men pictured. Then he backed away, saying he wasn’t in the picture. He then said he won’t resign, which his entire Democratic Party apparatus in Virginia is demanding that he do.

The back story? Why did the publishers of the Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook allow the picture onto its pages? Wasn’t anyone at the school paying attention to this hideous image?

It occurred in 1984, for crying out loud! It wasn’t 1924, or 1934. It was in an era when we supposedly had traveled many miles from the hatred and bigotry exemplified by black face portrayals and the terrorism inflicted on American citizens by the KKK.

Northam said he didn’t buy the yearbook. He didn’t see the picture until just the other day. He didn’t know the photo of the black face guy and the KKK dude were on his page until just now, 35 years later?

I believe Northam should resign.

I also believe the publisher and the editors associated with the med school yearbook need to be held accountable for allowing that hideous image to appear in the publication in the first place.

As for the governor’s assertion that he didn’t know of the photo’s existence until just now, I don’t believe that for an instant either.

This is a hideous story that needs to be explored in meticulous detail.

First things first, though. Get out of office, Gov. Northam.