Race is An Integral Part of This Nation

Race is an integral part of our national etiquette. The quest for a separate equality permeates every discussion. Yet we have never really confronted the issue.  Most exchanges seem cloaked in polite conversation, the kind reserved for backyard barbecues and dinner parties.  Uncensored commentary occurs only amongst the most trusted.

Perhaps it will require each of us to experience some personal epiphany, a time when total honesty becomes an imperative. We all should relish the possibility.  Role playing is a burden.  Sharing the heart is paradoxical, a simple yet complex pleasure.  As with most issues the key term is listen.  Listen to what is behind our words.  Private thoughts beget a narrow mindedness, conscience diminished.

Put in political context the discussion is neither black nor white, red or blue.  It is a question of two disparate cultures travelling the same road in tandem.  Acting one way or the other is simply a matter of style.  Being remains the key.  Putting one’s self-image at risk, offering an embrace rather than a hand held at distance.  It is not only that we need know each other.  In an ever changing global landscape it is necessary to understand each other.  Comprehension and apprehension can prove a healthy mix.  To quote Eliot, “There is only the trying.”  

Simply allow the inner self to project outward, share a meal, hopes and fears, honest convictions.  Integration terminology is always predicated on personal commitment.  Dean Meminger, a man I knew, recently passed.  He was quite special. We last met at a youth council affair parting with an embrace, kind words.  Race was superfluous, the moment was not.  Martin Luther King spoke of love as a universal palliative for all men, all colors and cultures.  In the worst of times there remains that thought. Free expression offers an elemental release. James Baldwin noted “The very time I thought I was lost, my dungeon shook and my chains fell off…”  Perhaps tomorrow, coffee and conversation?