King Day

It occurs to me this year, after so many life changes, so much learned and forgotten, and rising to a life on my own, that all heroes in any manifestation will only honestly fulfill their function when we rise to the same challenges ourselves. Only when we signal our own course through the tempest, write our own protest song, or simply speak up for those who cannot, will our heroes really have had the effect they should. I'd heard Jim Wallis of Sojourners tell this story of one of his colleagues, Lisa Sullivan on the radio years ago, and I can't help but think of it again on every MLK day. But this year.. before our nations' new President takes office and issues in what we're all hoping is a new season of Healing, Peace, and at very least the possibility of Change in the way we look at our Habitat, and our Future.. This day, Lisa Sullivan's words ring extraordinarily clear.. "We are the ones we have been waiting for!"

This inauguration is what the majority of Americans have been waiting on for 8 years, and we've worked hard to get here. But we cannot rely on any leader to regulate the change that will be needed, we need to force that kind of change ourselves. It's extraordinarily difficult, the task that's been put on our generation. A "New Deal" sort of reform on our National infrastructure and manufacturing job market, will be needed just to stop the bleeding, just to regain footing and start anew, but we can't wait for our heroes to enact regulations by themselves, they need to hear about the urgency, they need a clear signal from the People.

Let's do King proud from here on in. Let's bring the Unity that we're all craving, and let's be "the ones we have been waiting for!"