ROAD TRIP!!

Sometimes the struggle for human dignity has a happy ending and when that happens, it deserves wild and unrestrained celebration. One form of celebrating the triumph of the good guys is to pay homage to what they did in the places where they did it. And so it was with a mixed sense of celebration and curiosity that I set out with Shannon (a.k.a. Daisy Bates), fellow civil rights junkie and close friend, for our self-styled Civil Rights Road Trip in September of 2003. We set out our itinerary: three weeks, seven states, over 5000 miles and hundreds of years of history (we visited a former slave plantation in Louisville, KY). Along the way, Shannon and I silently thanked the activists who secured our modern opportunities. We walked where they marched and knelt where they were slain. In the series that follows, entitled "ROAD TRIP!!", Shannon and I will share with you our adventures and our thoughts.

If you ever find yourself in these places, or in other triumphant locations from the Civil Rights Movement that we didn't get a chance to visit, I hope that you'll stop to take a moment to reflect on what happened there. Today, as in all times, there is an overabundance of hatred and cruelty in the world. Yet, standing in the places where self-confidence, faith and love stared down misunderstanding, fear and loathing renews the fighting spirit. As the old folks used to say, "we're not where we ought to be, but thank G-d, we're not where we were."