Moeller on The Man

Stewart on TNRCC

Editorial Cartoon

John Harp                                 Ed De La Garza 
Jason Caesar Consolacion     Jim Parsons 

Living the dream

"I want to be a white man's brother, not his brother-in-law."

Do you think he would be happy with the state of our society in the new millennium?

Today, we are so much further than where we were 40 years ago. Of course, we still have a long way to go.

But King had a dream, a vision. The African-American race is accepted in many places it formerly wasn't. Its style, its music, its language -- the entire African-American culture is celebrated now more than King was ever able to see.

His vision is kept alive through movements of unity. Never before has acceptance been such a strong point in our society. Different races walk, talk, eat and sleep together. And despite the leftovers that remain in racist minds of the early Southern upbringing, most of this generation has been born into an accepting society.

This month, we celebrate the acknowledgment of brotherhood. We celebrate the African-American culture by recognizing its strength, its spirits and its perseverance through the years, decades, centuries of adversity it has had to endure.

But most of all, we celebrate acceptance. We live in a time where social acceptance is the one weapon we can use to eliminate hate. It's so easy. We are all creatures of God. We are all born into a world where we share common resources, common goals.

Why can't our generation pull through the adversity together ? It's not just the African-Americans, the Asians and the Hispanics. It's every man and every woman. Every homosexual and every disabled citizen.

All of us must be on a mission to eliminate the beliefs of prejudice.

And the mission is to eliminate the beliefs -- not the people or groups. Violence is not the answer. Of course this sounds like a broken record, but why do we always feel the need to repeat it?

Because it's still out there and there are still some people who don't get the picture.

The task sounds simple, but it has always been so difficult. Nevertheless, social acceptance is possible. We have to work together.

Hate is not an option. Acceptance is the only solution.

"Martin Luther King Jr. was blind, too. He didn't see white people and black people. He just saw people."