Last night, as we settled Maddy and Teddy in for bed, Grey stood in the hallway scanning YouTube for Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech. While normally screens are ban from storytime, recent events in the news combined with local events made clear the need for this exception.
Playing the video and listening to Dr. King's words, I reflected on how things we were talking about half a century ago are still very relevant today. How divided we are not only as a nation but as a world, all spurred on by the actions (and inactions) of a few for gain. And how, though it will require a lot of work and change that may initially seem more painful that this illness, it doesn't have to be this way.
So like Dr. King, I have a dream, mirroring the one he spoke of seemingly so long ago on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I hope that the evils we fight in this modern era, fueled by trolls on social media, will bring about that change. And I hope to see it all within my lifetime.
That is a beautiful hope. It saddens me how divided our society is. Perhaps if a growing number of people have hope, some of those divides can begin to heal.
ReplyDeleteIt is awful to realize how much hasn't changed, but I love the hope that it is still possible, even though our climate now is more divided than ever, and it seems that bigotry and hateful rhetoric are back in style. :(
ReplyDeleteI, too, dream of being more and more guided by kindness and connection than trollishness and division.
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