John Archibald’s recent column rekindles my hope.
It reminds me of an experience I wrote about for the Arab Tribune over a decade ago, after visiting the steps of the Alabama State Capital.
You can read it at: http://stevewestsmusings.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-crossroads-of-hope.html
I was born 4 weeks, to the day, after the March on Montgomery arrived at the capital steps in 1965 to promote the Voting Rights Act (the one that our present-day politicians recently started gutting).
After Obama was elected, and I was filled with such hope, I stood on those steps, right where Jefferson Davis was inaugurated and in view of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church that MLK served. I saw the tree planted from seeds George Wallace sent to the moon.
Oh, the juxtaposition. I imagined the 1965 march as if I were standing at the crossroads of history. In my one little life, we had gone from the fight for the right to vote unencumbered to a successful Black president.
I have not given up on the hope I felt that day, despite the discouraging white nationalist backlash that has ensued since then in American politics.
I do believe the arc of history bends toward justice, and my own derivative of MLK’s phrase: The arc of Christian history bends toward inclusion.
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