Lest I Forgot...Or did I?

Saturday was Martin Luther King's 79th birthday and on Monday, gov't offices and some private offices celebrated it by parades and radio spots of his famous "I have Dream" speech in Washington DC. On Monday, what did I do? I watched TV, stayed away from the news, locally and nationally and played "Call of Duty: 4" reaching the rank of 2d lieutenant.

Did I reflect on the man, who was responsible for leading us to the promise land, but like Moses, wasn't allowed to see us through or enter?

No.

Funny isn't it?

No.

I mentioned earlier that the day was celebrated with parades and radio spots of Dr. King's speeches. For what? Are we in the promise land or unlike Dr. King who was assasinated, did we refuse to go?

I can argue and agree with Dr. Cosby's assertion that a few of us aren't holding our part of the deal and I can agree with some assertions that we're stuck in a period that some of us didn't live.

We like too, it seems.

How is it possible that slavery ended in 1865, civil rights movements and victories won in 1965 and continuing and we still lag in education? Yet, we're holding the mantle of "keeping it real" to the tee?

How is it possible that Brown v. Board of Education allowed little black boys and girls to sit next to little white boys and girls and yet, we have a high school drop out rate and reading and math scores low.

Is this the dream and legacy I was supposed to reflect on?

Can't talk about crime...

Can't talk about single parent pregnancies...

Can't talk about issues or dialogue that involves racism...might get fired.

So where is this legacy?

I didn't forget. I just took the time to forget the nightmare.