"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character." - The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Whenever I am reminded of this quote, and we will all hear it a lot today, the song by En Vogue, "Free Your Mind" starts to play in my head.
I know, maybe I'm a little weird, but I think they might have based some of their song on this famous quote. The song talks about how the outside of a person is not really who they are - it's what is on the inside that will drive their actions. The past few years in our country seem to have brought the issue of color back to the surface, with people making some grandiose assumptions. Often they have been ugly and divisive. Did we all just get too comfortable, thinking we were passed it?
Or are there powers out there who just don't want us to get along?
I can't help but wonder how so much strife still exists within the melting pot of cultures that is the United States. Call me a dreamer, but I believe that most of us truly do look beyond the color, and we are color blind when it comes to race. But like the playground at school, when there was always a trouble maker kid who felt more comfortable when there was chaos, there are those in our neighborhoods and cities who can't grow up and out of it.
It doesn't mean we are a perfect union, but I do think it's time for the masses to speak up.
I plan on using this day to do as much good for my community and fellow humans as I possibly can. Because although there will be plenty of angry voices beating their desks on the television screen telling me that color is still a wedge between us, I will choose to believe that we have come a lot closer to seeing the wedge as more of an appreciated difference in our cultures.
After all, being a community of diversity is what makes us stronger.
So here's to a man that helped us to learn that, and left behind a legacy of strength.
Cheers.
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