Thank you, Dr. King

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, friends. For those of you that have this day off, I hope you are enjoying it fully. I hope that you are also taking a bit of time to remember that this day is about honoring a man whose life's work was dedicated to achieving true equality for all in the United States.

I watched Selma last week with Mitch and a couple friends. It was a random weeknight and we had the entire theatre to ourselves. I had never seen a trailer for Selma and didn't know what it is was about until Mitch informed me, "It's the MLK movie" on the way into the theatre. This movie was intense and incredible, to say the least. It wasn't overly dramatic, but I was still feeling all the feels. The part of the movie that really spoke to me was when Dr. King was putting out the call for anyone who believed in their cause to come to Selma for the march to Montgomery after they were met with violent brutality on their first attempt. There's a montage of American families watching the footage at home and some folks are so compelled by what they are seeing that they pack their bags and go to Selma. It made me question whether or not I would have gone, even though I feel so deeply for causes like this. Sometimes I struggle balancing my emotions for such things and not quite knowing what action to take or feeling guilty for not taking any action at all. It's something that I'm still figuring out.

There's something about humans being so cruel to other humans that I cannot understand. Hateful discrimination against someone because of their race, religion, sexuality, or any other distinguishing quality that doesn't affect the way another lives their life is a concept that I cannot accept or empathize with. I can't believe the Civil Rights Movement happened just about 50 years ago. I like to think that we've come a decent way since then, but it scares me to know that when our mothers and fathers were adolescents, the KKK was in their heyday and African Americans were being bullied by government officials and state laws out of their right to vote. That time period is too close for comfort and it is clear that we are not out of the woods on the issue of equality in America.

I asked Mitch how he felt about the movie afterwards, wondering if his Nigerian nationality would offer a different perspective from mine. He simply replied, "I feel the way any decent human being should feel." Empathy for the struggle of our fellow humans.

I am sad knowing that Dr. King isn't with us today mostly because I think about how much more work there is to be done and how much more progress we could have made with this leadership and guidance. Eventually, I think we'll get there (just think about how far we've come since the Dark Ages). We're going to figure this out. I believe in us.