A problem with the HTML validator

Hi there,

First, I am an amateur.  Even worse I spent forty years as a computer  
technologist, mainly teaching computer networking at the datagram  
level, but never coding details.  I am creating a website,  
freedtochoose.com and, as a matter of personal discipline, am trying  
to make it HTML 4.01 Transitional compliant.

In working on the page freedtochoose.com/site/about.html I used the  
coding to display the CSS icon as given at

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Ffreedtochoose.com%2Fcss%2Ftext.css&profile=css21&usermedium=all&warning=1&lang=en

<h5>
<a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer">
<img style="border:0;width:88px;height:31px"
            src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss"
            alt="Valid CSS!"  />
</a>
</h5>

and got a warning.  When I deleted the final "/" the page passed.

This is probably a small deal for savvy HTML writers, but it got me.   
The plus is that I am less defensive now and look forward to building  
a fully compliant website.

All the best, Gordon Hill, Las Cruces, NM, USA