MLK Day, 2022

When I take my daily walks, I think. And what I've been thinking about lately is what to write for this year's MLK Day.

Should I write about the souped-up horror over Critical Race Theory? About why we don't learn about Tulsa in our history classes? Why some Black folks have to stand in line for eight hours to vote - and why in some places they can't even be given a bottle of water for their troubles? About the Voting Rights Act? About white privilege (a term I really don't like)? About justice for George Floyd, for Ahmaud Arbery? About whether this Supreme Court will overturn Brown v. Board of Education and reaffirm Plessy v. Ferguson? About some ninny in Virginia who was so disturbed by reading Toni Morrison in his AP English class that he practically has PTSD? (Note to Virginia ninny: if you're triggered by reading Toni Morrison, you're not mature enough to take AP English.)

Should I write about my own life, most of which has been lived in the white-o-sphere? I didn't know any Black people growing up. I didn't work with many Black colleagues during my career in high tech. I live in a neighborhood that's as close to lily white as is possible. 

Most of the Black people I know are known through my volunteer work. 

I have one Black person who I can plausibly call a friend, but she's not an inner circle friend. She's someone I like an awful lot, and we sometimes hang out (especially when we're in the throes of our mutual volunteering). I've met her kids (who are fabulous). She's slept on my couch. I know that I could call her if I ever needed something. But she wouldn't be the first person I'd call. (I am fortunate that I am hip deep in family and friends I can rely on.)

Most of what I know about Black lives I saw on TV or read about somewhere. 

I have a lot to think about.

And today, to help me think things through, I'm going to curl up with a good book.

I will be reading selectively, focusing on older essays that, if I've ever read them to begin, I read a long time ago.

I don't know what I'll find, but I'm hoping it helps me figure out what to write about by the time MLK Day 2023 rolls around.

Meanwhile, here's what I had to say on this day last year. 

Here's how I ended my piece:

Martin Luther King, Jr., paraphrasing 19th century abolitionist minister Theodore Parker, famously wrote that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

We can dream, can't we?

I do like to think that this is the case.

It's been a tough year, all the way around.

I'm still dreaming. But the dream is tinged with fear, with sadness. Does the arc of the moral universe really bend toward justice? Maybe, I am sad and fearful to say, not in my lifetime.