Reflecting on Dr. King and the 44th President

Today is Martin Luther King's birthday- a federal holiday in the United States. While to some it's just a day to get a paid holiday from work- to others, like me, it's a time for genuflection. From Martin Luther King- to Barak Obama, how much this country has come in my short lifetime.

I want to share something- a story that transpired when I was four years old. A memory locked in my babyhood/toddlerhood, but still left an impact. My family as visiting my father's brother in Alabama, one summer. My mother was somewhere with me, four, and my sister, two. She had to take a bus to get back to my Uncle's house. She was on line behind a black woman and a small infant in her arms. The bus driver told the woman to get in the back of the bus, and used the "N" word. My mother heard every word the driver said and told him to apologize. He looked at my mother, and said "Lady, this isn't the North, It's Alabama".

My mother turned around, picked up my sister, and walked off the bus. To applause. And we walked back home, and I was hot, tired and cranky. I didn't understand it. It was the late 60s. Years later, same town, I was 12. I understood it then. Because my mother told me one thing that has stayed with me my entire lifetime.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Martin Niemöller

I am honored to call Therese Bouchard a friend. I really am. She has a post today which starts off like this

I have a dream that one day I won't hold my breath every time I tell a person that I suffer from bipolar disorder, that I won't feel shameful in confessing my mental illness.

I have a dream that people won't feel the need to applaud me for my courage on writing and speaking publicly about my disease, because the diagnosis of depression and bipolar disorder would be understood no differently than that of diabetes, arthritis, or dementia.

Please read it. Today, and tomorrow when Barak Obama becomes the next president, and we can honestly say how far as a country we have come. Now to work on rights for the Mentally Ill.