012020

Time was, you just needed to have dark skin, or poverty, or immigrant status, or to be a child, or a woman, for America to treat you badly. But now. Now! You have to work hard to be discriminated against. What on Earth would there be for Dr King to do, if he was alive today? He would probably want school children to learn about all the civil-rights leaders, and what they did. That would be the least we could do.

011518

we shouldn't have to march
for equal treatment
for voting rights
for civil rights
for education
for food and shelter
for justice
for the right to not be put away forever
the right to stay above the ground


these are not simple things
but they aren't so hard

we shouldn't still have to march
but we do

011617

Marched today (OK, I rolled); ran into old friends I haven't seen lately. UUs were everywhere in the crowd. Whoever that law student who spoke was, she gave a powerful speech. Why was I there? Thank Global Warming!

MLK Day

Anything I can say has been said better by others. But here it is anyway.

This year's tragedies across the US have starkly demonstrated how far we have to go before we can achieve the state of equality and respect that Dr. King envisioned. Not that lethal force too-quickly resorted to by police against young dark-skinned men is the only problem here. However, it certainly shows that a great rift exists between the America we have and the one that Dr. King named as our goal. It's still the goal: a place where bigotry doesn't ruin lives, where race and creed, as well as sexual orientation, gender identity, and many other personal characteristics are not used as markers for discrimination and hate. We'll get there, and this day of action and remembrance helps. I firmly believe that.