Even as a little girl I was drawn to stories about the American civil rights movement. Born in 1964, I always had the sense that I missed the action. I would find myself wondering what I would have done had I been there. Would I have marched alongside Dr. King or would I have sympathized in silence?
It's easy to imagine that all that is behind us now. Yet there are people in the world today who are treated as second class citizens because of their ethnic identity, religion, sexual orientation, social class or gender identity. The question is the same: Will I march alongside them or will I sympathize in silence?
There is a Ray Charles song that says, "None of us is free, if one of us is chained." I can sit and meditate and seek equanimity but if, as I believe, we are all connected, I cannot be free unless all my brothers and sisters are free. I cannot do everything, but I can do something to make the world more just.
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