Two Historic Days
Today we celebrate the birth of one of the icons of our nation: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I shared some thoughts last year, which remain as they are, but I never imagined at that time the course that history would take between these two celebrations of his birth.
There are days that I still find myself seeing even more deeply just how depraved we have been as a nation. I've been studying our history this past year, and find that in the midst of a hundred other events in the course of time we have been surrounded by our constant failure to give all people the respect and opportunity they deserve. Although I would contend that we have done what should be done by government to bring dignity and equality to the masses, I know that many would be quick to disagree. It would be interesting to hear the opinions of those like Condoleezza Rice, Barack Obama, Clarence Thomas, all of whom have lived through the years of dramatic change in out society and have been in roles where they can see many of the aspects of the society's changes in judicial, legislative and education worlds.
I consider myself, as well as the whole nation, indebted to Dr. King for his sacrifice in carrying the message of our social failure and need for transformation to the leaders and people of our country. It still makes me sad to think he died so young (he was only 39), but he had already successfully lit the fire of reform in the hearts of many people, both black and white.
It surprises me that racism is still such an unfettered evil in our society. It pains me to think that people can still look down on others for any reason. But we have frail feelings, frail hearts, frail souls... we are difficult to mend.
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Tomorrow the 44th President of the United States will be inaugurated. The first African-American to be President. I don't agree with Mr. Obama on some key policy areas, and that is not likely to change. But I do hope that he is successful in his role as President. For the [...]
