A Sincere Apology...

I have a confession to make.

As much as I have prided myself in keeping informed in the current events of politics, business and world affairs (no I am NOT talking about Brad, Angelina and Jennifer!), I have truly been humbled this morning by a 10 minute speech that, I sadly admit, have never heard in its entirety, nor have I really ever taken the time to do so.

This week, we "celebrated" Human Rights Day or Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I post that in quotes because I didn't notice any parades or rallies or important news surfacing from its existance that day. I suppose that most of the holidays that we "celebrate" that are named after men tend to end up that way. I mean, I don't see much hoopla over Washington or Lincoln's birthdays (in fact, in recent history, the government actually combined the two seperate events into one holiday - President's Day). There has recently been controversy over whether or not we should have a Colombus Day or not, but again no real fanfare over that holiday. And don't get me started on Christmas (my favorite holiday of all) -- there are power out there still trying to remove "Christ" from the holiday all together.

Still, I have been humbled this morning that my little sister posted the ENTIRE "I Have a Dream" speech on her blog and I had the honor to watch it from beginning to end. I want to thank my sis for doing so.

And I want to openly apologize to my Negro brothers and sisters out there who have tried to live up to the ideals and the power of MLK's speech, yet I have either been ignorant, or somehow unconciously indifferent. And I truly blame the media for turning this powerful oration into a 30 second sound bite for the vast majority of my lifetime.

MLK's speech was less than ten minutes -- yet the intensity and the absolute, laser accurate words he used have somehow struck a chord within me. Human Rights are NOT a black issue. In his immortal words, "a man should not be judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of their character!" I repeat -- the CONTENT of their CHARACTER!

His "dream" included the vision that one day "little black boys and girls and little white boys and girls would one day join hands, as brothers and sisters!" And the message, still ringing in my ears that "if America is to be a great nation, it must live up to the words of the great song 'My Country 'tis of Thee'."

To all of you, black, white, gay or straight, protestant, catholic, jew, muslim, hindu, etc.: I sincerely offer you my hand in fellowship, brother- (and sister-) hood and repeat "Let freedom ring!"

And, not to sound too sappy, to borrow from Dickens, "God bless us, every one."