A mile in my shoes...

It just about got lost in the pre-Katrina run up.

Yesterday was also the anniversary of The Rev Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Since while speaking he went away from his printed speech, I have always felt that something higher was feeding him the words that have resonated for over forty years.

While some misguided souls like Justice Clarence Thomas believe that racism is dead in America, I'm one of those that still believe that the "quicksands of racial injustice" have yet to be filled in this country. For everyone. Which is what Rev King's ideals were all about.

One of my favorite shows was "I'll Fly Away". Originally airing on NBC and starring Sam Waterston and the amazing Regina Taylor, it was the story of a pre civil rights-era white family in South Carolina and their Black maid, Lily. An impressive effort by creators John Falsey and Joshua Brand, this Emmy Award and Golden Globe-winning series was eventually cancelled and was picked up by PBS, where it gave WHYY their most successful pledge break to that date while it aired.

But I mention it because at the beginning and end of each episode there was a voice-over by Lily reading from her journal about the times. In one episode where a character, Reverend Henry, spoke much like Rev King's speech, came her voice at the closing credits that summed up my own thoughts more eloquently than I ever could:

When I was little and my daddy had his Hudson, we'd drive home from relatives at night and I'd look at the lighted houses passing by and I'd think "Who lives there?" and "What's their life like?" "What are they doing right now?" Many of these were white people's houses and as I grew up I came to know the answers to these questions - because I went to work in those houses.

Sometimes at night I realize, though, that white people, even to this day, still don't know what goes on in my house. They've never been to my house. When they have been there, that'll be the time Reverend Henry talks about.

Perhaps it was Katrina that made me realize that maybe we all just need to walk a mile in each other's shoes. Or at the very least, think more about how it must feel to wear them.

- Farmer Ted