America's Celebration of Diversity and Hope

Today is a major holiday in America.

Today is Martin Luther King Day.

We celebrate the contributions that this great man made to the improvement of our civil society, to bringing a moral focus back to America so that we could better realize the dreams of creating a true democracy, where all stood equal in their opportunity to succeed and thrive, to a time when the color of one's skin would not be a barrier to anything.

I have not had this day off since the early 90s, when I worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  In my current job, the pressure of multiple work deadlines (payroll deadlines, W-2s and 1099s) makes it virtually impossible to take the day off.  Other employers simply don't want to recognize it as a major holiday. I'm hoping that as I approach greater retirement in the accounting profession, that I may be able to take the day off and participate in local activities.

We did get to see, on Saturday,  the brilliant movie, Hidden Figures, focusing on the impressive contributions that black women made to our early space program.  One, Katherine Johnson, was basically responsible for constructing the math that allowed for John Glen's orbit and successful return to Earth.  It is upsetting to know that as recently as the early 60s, within my lifetime, there was segregation even in the space program - separate offices, separate bathrooms, separate water fountains.  It made no sense.  It was ugly, brutal and unwarranted.


And yes, we have made significant progress since then.  But there is much that remains to be done.  African Americans are still exposed to prejudice everyday.  There is discrimination in the number of arrests and police violence that they are exposed.  The gap between average white wealth and average black wealth remains enormous.  Our schools are re-segregating, despite the law.  There are more and more barriers raised to the right to vote, and they are primarily focused on minority communities.


And now the electoral college selection is about to become President of the United States.  Donald Trump and many of the aides he has gathered around him are no friend to civil rights.  They intend to take us even farther back in time, to reverse even more of the progress that has been made.

This day needs to be a celebration of the progress that we have made, and to the progress we can make in the future.  Instead, this year, it has to be a fight to preserve and restore what had already been won.

We have to show them.

We will not forget.

We will not move backwards.


Times have been dark before.  But we must not lose sight of that shining light, that shining city on the hill.

Setbacks will not deter us.

We shall overcome.