Sacrifices

As I drove my mom back to her car Monday afternoon (I went home to say goodbye to the mother of one of my best friends) we started talking about Dr. King, especially since this past Friday was the 40th anniversary of his assassination on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. She then told me about the riots that gripped Wilmington, Delaware in the days following Dr. King's murder, and how the National Guard came in to control the city. For nine months from (April of '68 to January of 1969), these soldiers in training occupied the city, long after the riots ended. My mom said "oh yeah, we had a curfew and all. Couldn't go outside after 6 p.m., or the guards would come with their guns or ride by on jeeps telling you to go back in the house."

The Guard's full-term pregnancy in Wilmington to this day remains the longest peacetime (by that, I assume they mean non-war, because from all accounts, there wasn't a damn thing peaceful about that time) occupation of an American city in this country. Since Monday when I spoke to my mom and her best friend about it, I've tried my hardest to imagine what it would be like as a teenager as my mom was back then, not being allowed to go to dances, the lil after-school hangout spots, hell, no football or basketball games! I would have been a hot mess at 13 back then.

Then again, that's why I admire our predecessors in so many ways. Although being holed up in the crib was NOT their choice, they were able to abide by the b.s. conditions without any further damage being done. We definitely take for granted the freedoms we have now because of how our parents/grandparents/great-grandparents and so on suffered and hustled in hellacious conditions. It makes you think about how our living conditions would be if they just said "screw it, it's not worth it." Instead, they buckled down, manned (and woman'd) up and said "this isn't right, and we won't stop until it is." Because of them, we can come and go as we please with little resistance (let's be real it's still there, but not many of us are dying now from said resistance) and live our lives the way we see fit.

While we still have a ways to go to fulfill the hopes and dreams of prior generations, I don't believe we're in dire straits like some seem to think. Hell, Barack Obama is one state away from being the Democratic NOMINEE. Not a contender, not a vice president, not a cabinet member, THE NOMINEE. Barack Obama is a product of hopes, a product of dreams, a product of a desire for change. We ALL are. And if the younger generation can somehow galvanize itself to have that "keep the pressure on" mentality our ancestors did, then it won't be long before Dr. King's dream of peace and equality is a given.