I've been watching the speeches from the 50th Anniversary March on Washington. I've really been finding it very moving.
I remember watching Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech 50 years ago. I was in tears at the end of it. I was very caught up in the whole civil rights movement, and I felt like King was the greatest leader I had seen in my lifetime--and 50 years later I still feel the same way. His death was an immeasurable loss and the void it left has never quite been filled.
50 years later, I feel like my country is a better place, for so many different groups of people, as a result of the changes that began then, but the progress for African-Americans couldn't be more dramatic than the fact that one of them now occupies the White House. There's still a long ways to go, but we've made a good start in the past 50 years.
I wish young people today had the kind of excitement about change, and about creating social change, that I had 50 years ago. I wish I could recapture that sense of excitement for myself, but it's harder to find an outlet for that sort of thing now, at least for me.
Anyway, that's what I've been thinking about today.
Now I'm ready for some iced coffee and some Key lime pie.
