Dear Xmca-ers--
Tonight is a magic moment. In the Los Angeles Times this morning
there was
an
editorial "cartoon" that had a picture of the Calendar with Martin
Luther
King, on
January 19th, pointing to the future-- of January 20th, when,
Humanity
willing, when
an African-American will become president of the United States.
I feel unbelievably luck to be alive, present, and, in my small
peripheral
way, a participant
in such an event. The site of Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen
singing Arlo
Guthrie's hymn
to the promise of this troubled country with its checkered
history in front
of Lincoln's statue
yesterday was a sight I NEVER expected to live to see. When I was
a child,
my family's anti-
racism and belief in social justice produced some very hard
times. When I
went to graduate
school in Indiana and picketed Woolworth's literally dogged by the
police,
my New York liberal
friends thought it was so obvious and unnecessary they couldn't be
bothered.
When I returned
from the USSR in 1963 and did not know enough to turn south from
New York to
be present in
Washington for MLK's speech at the Lincoln memorial, but had to
hear it
while driving west on the
Pennsylvania turnpike, we felt the lost opportunity sorely.
All events, long past.
LCHC holds this truth to be self evident: All persons are created
equal. We
are rendered unequal
by the environment into which we are born, an environment that, in
the
general ideological-theoretical
assumptions of xmca, is not forced upon human beings locked into
an iron
cage, but is, with proper
respect and humility, constructed and (may our grand children hope)
preserved by the actions we take
now. today. tomorrow. and the days following.
Gotta turn off the TV. The trivia level is almost more than I can
bear.
Better to turn to friends coming to
celebrate and pray for the future, and to listen to Pete Seeger
leading the
nation in us thought that,
just maybe, we can overcome.
Bon nuit
bueno noche
spokoini nochi
and lots of good luck. We all need it.
mike
(the 50's guy)
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