MLK Day

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It was a volatile year wasn't it?

I'm talking about racial issues, of course, and while I once thought that we were reaching a civil understanding of one another...

...and while I was amazed back when Obama was elected president...

...I now think the racial divide is worse than ever.

We heard this year that Black Lives Matter.

Cops killing black men.

Riots.

A ton of unrest.

Black leaders speaking out.

White leaders trying to explain.

And all of it beyond comprehension.

Are we still stuck there?

I think of it, in the context of MLK Day.

He fought for equal rights.

He was gunned down.

We all know the story of his dream.

It appears that his dream isn't close to coming true.

I know that on Monday I will hear someone say:

"Shoot four more and we could've taken the week off."

Someone will say that.

Sadly.

And I guess that I'll never, as a white man, know exactly how chilling something like that can be for a man trying to make his way in his home country.

Perhaps I will never see peace in that regard, but we were in the Vegas airport last week and I urged my wife to look around.

Whites, blacks, Asians, gays, Muslims, Hispanics...

...all of us just moving through the line.

Smiling.

I know that I wasn't expecting it all to go south because the people around me didn't look just like me.

In fact, I enjoyed seeing such diversity.

It's my favorite part of traveling, actually.

I personally think that America remains great and I honestly believe that diversity is what makes us that way.

Maybe I'm just dreaming too.

But enjoy MLK Day.

It is an important day to consider what you may or may not feel about people that you don't know, but fear anyway.

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