"All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem."
Martin Luther King Jr. said that and amen to it. Actually, I have no idea what the context of this quote was - I'm not an MLK scholar. But it's a quote I have always liked - even more than the impassioned "I have a dream" speech. What it says to me is that our work is never done. There's always a next step.
There's a lot of kvetching going on about today's holiday. Does MLK deserve it? Am I racist for even asking? Is it a black holiday? And so on and so on.
We've legislated for minorities. In the not very distant past - actually within my lifetime - we've given blacks the right to vote, mandated equal pay and legislated against all discrimination. As though we were gifting them for good behavior or some such. So the balance is equal, right?
Except we have this 'black holiday'. And BET. And Ebony. And all the other 'black only' media. And there's a lot of whites that don't like it.
So, hey, big surprise! The laws say we're all equal but, gosh, it doesn't really seem like we're on the same team, does it? I think THAT'S the next problem - the next task we face. Until we quit putting value in the frivolous things we decide define us: race, religion, sexual preference et cetera we will NEVER have equality. We will never acquire MLK's dream:
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"
And I don't think he meant equal but separate.
Patrick Henry once said: "United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.” I can find more quotes along the same lines - we've been told over and over again. And yet it's a lesson we refuse to learn, much to our detriment. Will we ever?
