I have seen the faces of bigotry surrounding students in Little Rock whose only “crime” was wanting an equal education. I was 10 years old, and I wondered why those people were so angry. I saw how ugly they were – faces transformed by blind and senseless hatred. I watched the evening news…and I thought. Those people frightened me. And the more I thought – the more I realized there were people I knew (some in my own family) who were just like those people. I decided right then and there that I would NOT be like that crowd in Little Rock. I would NOT be like the less overt (but just as prejudiced) people I encountered every day.

I have been saddened by this part of our nation’s history. But at the same time, I have been honored and blessed to see us work past this history with the Montgomery bus boycott, Selma, and all the other milestones on the way towards our nation’s ideal of equality for all. There are no words to describe my feelings as our nation takes another step away from those ugly days of my childhood – and closer to an era dreamed about by Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

On November 4, 2008 – we took another step towards living up to that ideal.
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