Dr. Martin Luther King Day - a Gift from a Child

     I want to thank Martin Luther King for what my children don’t have to know.  Only in history books do they have to understand separate-but-equal, or know what Jim Crowe means.  My children don’t live in a world where their first impression of another is based on the color of their skin and they can play with every child without a thought that precludes them from making friends with anyone that they enjoy spending time with.

     That really struck me when my red-headed daughter came home with a picture from her kindergarten class.  She attended a class that had five white students and seventeen children of other ethnicities.  She’d arrived early one day and was the only white child present when her teacher snapped a photo of the group working together.  There were about twelve children in the photo and they were gathered together reading.  She was very proud of her friends, and her achievements, and she produced the photo with a great excitement and said to me, “Daddy, this is my class – I’m the one with red hair!”  She didn’t notice the color of the other children, or anything else at all.  It was a moment so sweet in its truth that I only could begin to understand the impact that Dr. King really has had on our world today, and to be thankful to him for it.

     Sometimes it is through the eyes of a child that we see clearly.  My daughter’s innocent comment was that for me.  I’ve always played sports, I’ve been a Democrat since I was born, I’ve worked in the richest and poorest parts of our community, and I’ve tried to help everyone no matter who they are.  But my daughter’s comment brought a clarity to me that only Dr. King could see fifty years ago.

     America is good, even with all of our faults.  America is the best nation in the world even when we struggle amongst ourselves.  We still have huge disparities in different communities in education, health care, housing and economic opportunity that we need to find answers for.  America still fights to find the balance between a Christian nation that cares for those less fortunate with our tax dollars, and the American capitalist ideal that everyone must fend for themselves.

     We are a nation that has made huge strides in acceptance, equality and opportunity because of Dr. Martin Luther King.  That is what we honor as Dr. King’s legacy.  We are better as a society than we were in 1964.  Our children think we’ve already achieved the dream he showed us.  I can only hope that we will strive to become an even stronger community in the future here in Columbia, in South Carolina and in America to make all of our children – of every background – proud of the progress we continue to fight for in 2014.