I have been lucky enough to see
(and touch in those days) the Liberty Bell. I have stood in Independence Hall
and Old North Church. I climbed stairs inside the Statue of Liberty and looked
at Plymouth Rock. Walked the garden at Mount Vernon and visited Lincoln’s home
in Springfield. I have stood in the dim of the memorial, reciting the Gettysburg
Address for my young children.
These things have changed me. But
of greater importance to my education were visits to the slave quarters at
Mount Vernon. There is Ford’s Theater where Lincoln was shot for believing in
equality. I have seen the steps that the young back children walked to
integrate Montgomery’s schools. I have stood in the pulpit of Martin Luther
King at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church from which he saw Rosa Parks who had seated herself in
the “wrong” seat on a bus. I have dug gold in the same places that the Chinese
dug to make their master’s rich. There are the Japanese concentration camps in
the desert. I have been to Watts.
Tomorrow is Independence Day. We beat
the British, we are still to address ourselves.
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