How would your day today be different had Martin Luther King not have done all that he did? How would your day be different had Rosa Parks never started a bus protest? I know my day would be dramatically different. R and I may never have met or married and if we did, we would of had to face far more injustices. So as I sit here with my beautiful inter-racial baby on my lap I feel abundantly blessed for all people, past and present, who took a stand for equality and that A will not live in a world were her mother and father can not go to the same restaurants or schools.
When R and I started dating in 2000 we were living outside of Boston. When going on dates in Boston together there were times that we received looks, stares and the occasional rude comment. A couple of summers ago R and I went out for some ice cream and were walking on the sidewalk when a truck drove by and a man proceeded to yell out his window looking straight at R and called him the n word. What has happened to R and to us over the past nine years disgusts me to no end but it pales in comparison to what would have happened 40 + years ago. It is so hard to swallow that there are still people today that will hate him, A and our extended family not because of who they are but because of what they look like, yet at the same time I am so grateful that people have changed their views, words and actions over the last several decades because of people like Dr. King and Ms. Parker. So how do we continue their legacy? What can we do to ensure that this bundle of joy squirming in my lap will not have to experience these hateful words and actions? Let's get our of our comfort zones and get to know someone who is from a different ethnicity, economic level or religion from our own. To paraphrase Dr. King, you cannot change darkness with more darkness. You can only change darkness with light. May we be light to others when we see an injustice occurring.
right on! :O)
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