Living the dream...

I had good parents who really did their best to raise productive citizens.  My biggest influence was my Pop.  He was the 8th of 10 kids in a working-class Northern Kentucky family.

My paternal grandparents were very "live and let live" sorts who I never heard express any strong opinions about anything except working hard...well, and being quiet when grandpa was watching TV.

From very early on, though,  I remember my Pop making a point of teaching us to take people as they come and not to be fooled by how someone appears, but rather decide what kind of person someone was based on how they behaved and the choices they made.

Race was never even mentioned in our home -- except by my mother's mother and my father quickly made it clear that racism and racist statements were wrong.

  The whole of my early life, my Pop attempted to put Dr. King's dream into effect by teaching his own children to judge people only on the content of their character.

Now, don't assume that this means I was unaware that there was racism.  Of course, I saw things on TV and, sadly, in my own town that proved to me that there were people who would mistreat people of color only because they were people of color.  But, these were the "bad guys" and it seemed to me that there were far fewer of them than there were "good guys".  Good guys took people as they were and would only dislike you if you were dishonest or mean.

So, imagine my sadness and confusion when I grew up and realized that wasn't how the world actually functioned.  Suddenly, as an adult, I realized that there were those who assumed I was racist simply because I was white.  I had no hope of proving anyone wrong who made that assumption, because they weren't interested in hearing differently. 

Thankfully, as I've grown older, I've come to the conclusion that taking each individual human being as they themselves are is still the only way I can live.  I would have missed out on many fulfilling friendships in life if I hadn't held on to that precept. 

But, I remain disheartened and sometimes downright angry that this country has been so torn apart by racial hatred and that the worst perpetrators of racial hatred are those who profess to seek an end to racism.

However, the anniversary of my Pop's death is also the anniversary of Dr. King's famous speech and it just brought it all full circle for me.

I will continue to live my life as someone who would make Pop proud, and so I will continue to do my part to see Dr. King's dream fulfilled.