XVII (17) Privilege Parade

I know that watching the news reports won’t help me change the world. Yet I’ve found myself more glued to the screen over the past 24+ hours than I want to be, and yesterday I was feeling pretty down in the dumps by the evening time. I forced myself to go to the dojo for a couple of hours, and I felt much better after some hard physical/mental work.

And today has been up and down, what we witnessed yesterday is going to have historical ramifications. There have been many different marches over the years, many historical events, on the National Mall Dr. King gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech as the headline of the March On Washington, but yesterday was privilege on parade and cowardice on display.

MLK Day falls on January 18th this year, two days before inauguration. I plan on releasing a version of the speech I won a grand prize award for back when I was 17 years old, many moons ago. Sadly it seems just as relevant now as it was relevant then, as are the words of Dr. King still relevant today. We have not reached the promised land. The election of Barack Obama as the first black President and now the election of Kamala Harris the first black and first woman Vice President are milestones to be celebrated for sure, but the backlash, the ugly dog whistle calls to “take our country back” show just how far we have to go.

We shall overcome, but we must not succumb to despair and apathy. The soul of humanity is at stake.