Martin Luther King, Jr

When the holiday that we celebrate tomorrow comes around every year there are a multitude of tributes, celebrations, parades, dinners, and sermons and essays written.  All of these things ensure we don't forget. That we continue to remember his legacy.  That legacy of non-violent resistance.  And racial justice.  And the march toward equality.  It's been a long time, hasn't it?  Our country suffered under the scourge of slavery for the first 90 years of it's existence.  And after a great Civil War, we wallowed in the disgrace of racial discrimination for the next 150 years.  But things are getting better.  I think that the the reason why we mark tomorrow to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King is that he was really the one that forced us as a country to turn the corner.  To start the march to equality.  To pass the landmark Civil Rights Act.  And that's worth celebrating.

But the thing is that there are so many who don't see progress.  They don't see the march.  They don't see the long road to where we are today.  Or if they do see it, they believe that it's been too long, that injustice should be eradicated immediately.  But that is not the way humans work.  Humans evolve from generation to generation.  It takes time, education, effort, and cultural evolution for societal change to take place.  But I believe that as far as we have to go, we've come a long way.  Oh there is still lots to be done, but that shouldn't discount how far we've come as a country and society.  When I make this declaration many would say that I simply can't understand.  That I suffer from white privilege.  Okay...fair enough.  But I think that view ignores experience and intellect.

So when I think of tomorrow, I celebrate how far we've come with a strong recognition that we still have a long way to go.  And hope that arc keeps bending...