A few months ago I was taken aback when a close friend told me how her five year old had no concept of what TV was like without DVR/TiVo. She has always been able to “pause” TV and rewind her favorite scenes. I remember what life was like before cable and my parents remember what live was like before TV, much less colored, digital cable. flat screen plasma TVs.
As I sat watching my non-plasma screen TV 
Thursday night, I couldn’t help but think about “watching history in the making”. These moments are as frequent as they are infrequent. I can recount other history making moments I’ve witnessed over my quarter century of life: casting my ballot in my first “election” during Kindergarten for George Bush Sr versus Michael Dukakis, then later on my senior of high school voting in my first “real” election for George W. Bush versus Al Gore, my first experience of war during Operation Desert Storm and watching people from my hometown National Guard deployed overseas, being a young college freshman nine hours away from home when the Towers crashed and the emotional visit at the site of Ground Zero just six short months later, the wall being ordered down and only fully understanding what that meant a few years ago, getting our first computer and being able to use a encyclopedia CD instead volumes of books, and many other significant and insignificant events over the years.
I think about what all has changed in my generation and what has changed since my grandparents’ generation: polio vaccines, electricity standard in every household (much less private phones or cell phones!), indoor plumbing, a man walking on the moon, World Wars, just to name a few. More than me being able to imagine life before technological advances, it is hard to imagine an America where women couldn’t vote and people of color couldn’t eat in restaurants, attended separate schools, and used different public bathrooms.
After watching Barak Obama’s history-making speech accepting the Presidential nomination of a major political party as a man of color, I’ve been reflecting on how much things can change and also have the ability to remain the same. I re-listened to Dr. King’s history-making speech (35 years to the prior of Mr. Obama’s speech) and realized what all has changed from 1963 and the struggles and fight for justice that continue on today. Despite our political differences of opinion, the fact that we have a Presidential nominee that breaks the white male mold cast since 1792 is history making!! I wonder when Dr. King delivered his speech in the shadow’s of a monument for a previous freedom torch bearer, did he ever dream of a Presidential candidate of color during his children’s lifetime. So many dreams that Dr. King had have already been fulfilled, but the dreams of justice, equality and freedom live on for all of God’s children- those living both inside and outside of the United States
When I see these images of the past and images of the present injustice of modern day slavery and the AIDS epidemic, I am reminded that we live in broken world. Brokenness abounds all around that’s not the issue, the question is will we keep the dream of justice, peace, and equality alive in our immediate and global community? I think our votes for presidents and government leaders shape policy and bring change, but the most effective change comes from grassroots level of ordinary people like: Rosa Parks, Gandhi, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Cesar Chavez, and you and me deciding to be the change in the world we wish to see. This is how the dream lives on!
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