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Today is the Martin Luther King holiday in the USA. I took the "Freedom Train"
from San Jose to
San Francisco and wondered along the 1.5 hour ride if US Goans understand the
debt they owe people
like MLK and other civil rights fighters/organizations. I have been fortunate
to visit Montgomery,
Alabama, and Dexter Baptist Memorial Church where MLK first preached, the town
where Rosa Parks
refused to give up her seat. I have stood in awe at the Edmund Pettis bridge
(Selma, Alabama) and
thought about the great sacrifies made so equal opportunity is now available to
all communities,
an idea we want to fight for around the world.
Goan prosperity owes a great deal to the opportunties and freedoms created by
the Civil Rights Act
and the people (mostly African-Americans) who gave their lives so others can be
free. But have US
Goans stopped to reflect on our good fortune? Do we appreciate the
African-American community or
are we racist towards them? It is easy to be lost with an I-Pod, text messaging
the world on
mundane matters. It is easy to picnic and dance at the usual Goan "functions",
these things don't
take any skills. What is a challenge is to see important points in our history,
however blurred by
time and our present prosperity and be grateful to those who got us here.
Thank you Martin Luther King.
Regards,
George
