MLK

I had my Battalion level striper board on Tuesday and it was an interesting experience. I'm not sure whether it went well or not, but my Senior Chief was sitting on the board and told me that I had good "boardsmanship". I suppose that's a good sign. The biggest loop that I was thrown for was when that same Senior Chief asked me if I got my position, what would I say to a person who came up to me and said that I only got the position because I'm Mexican. I wasn't sure exactly what to answer, but I managed to get something out that was half-way intelligible. Anyway, this got me to thinking about how--despite our hopes to the contrary--racism and discrimination are really not gone today. Hopefully they will be someday, but as I've seen from my time here and my time at home and my time in Bastrop and all the traveling I've done, we are not there yet. Yes, I've experienced racism toward me, toward my people, and toward others I've been around, and I've probably been racist myself. Even the small things are felt.

Anyway, this is a link to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail". It's very long and takes a while to read and digest properly, but it's excellently written, and brings up some excellent topics of discussion. I don't want to say I enjoyed reading it, but I found it thought-provoking and just a good thing to do.