Participating in yesterday's events in Rochester (MN, for those of you in or from other states) reminded me why I wanted to be in AmeriCorps in the first place. Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted us to serve each other and treat everyone with kindness, not too different than what I'm trying to teach my kids to do. And especially over the last couple days, I discovered that the concept of civil and human rights is pretty much the biggest thing I support--at least politically.
King called for us not only to treat people of different skin colors equally, but all kinds of people. A long time ago, I used to go to a school (and an after school program) with a high population of dark-skinned people. Not so long ago, I used to go to a church that had somewhat of a diversity of people: different races, different religious backgrounds (yes, we did), and different sexual orientations, and for the most part we were open to all of it. Growing up in these places, I was exposed to this diversity and was taught to disregard these superficial differences. As a result, I found it rather hard that anyone could have a problem with being around different kinds of people.
Over the years since my more formative days, the MLK celebration day became less and less important to me, largely because the surroundings I found myself in (especially once I started going to schools with predominantly white populations). This made yesterday even more poignant, because I was able to understand the day's purpose. It was quite an opportunity to march the streets of downtown Rochester, carrying a sign that said "Continue the Dream: Equality for the Whole World" (which I wholeheartedly believe in), and sing and chant with my fellow ralliers for freedom, justice, peace, health care, jobs, fair housing, etc.
The message stood out even more clear at the afternoon program when our keynote speaker came up and challenged us to think about how we can serve and participate in continuing the dream on a day-to-day basis. He had railed against the apathy of his generation, the one that was alive when King made his calls for equality and service to one another. He argued that they had a responsibility to educate the younger generations, the ones who had not yet been born. Their failures to teach them to stand up for right and against wrong led to the relative apathy among these younger circles, leading them to think about themselves, and undermining King's message in the process.
Today the United States of America welcomed ["http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-extra-obama-mainbarjan20,0,1796315.story"] its 44th president. Technically Barack Obama was inaugurated, but I say welcomed because it seems he's the leader many people say they've been clamoring for. I hope so. I've been following ["http://n8daoggblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/i-know-who-im-voting-for.html"] him ever since he declared ["http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-070210obama-pearson1-story,0,3768114.story"] his intent to run for the presidency. I liked him for president because he was a breath of fresh air, and he and I shared the same stances on some of the bigger issues for me (equality for all people, service, community). I liked him because he was different from all the other candidates who pretty much existed to serve only themselves or their party.
I'm not completely jumping up and down, though. While I'm glad the page is turning, there is still plenty of work to be done, and whatever "change" is promised will take time. It might take more than four years. Heck, there's a good chance some of it will. But it will only really work if the people are involved. We voted for the man; now we have to share the burden and get to work, too.
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