364 Days to Progress | MLK Tribute | Musings of a Black Female Adoptee

When accountability is conditional, or only as deep as someone has treated you, or based solely on our own experiences is when you know we as humans are have formed a new level existence. Social media presents us with a lot of situations that we react to instantly. I always get a kick out reading the comments of posts and articles. It always reveals how the lines become blurred when personal responsibility and humanity collide.

On a day like today, it makes the comments stand out starkly.

MLK has been known for his calls for action and discourse when it comes to racism and discrimination. His famous quotes running from "I have a DREAM" and one of my favorites: "An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

There are many more quotes that could be repeated. But why, if we are only going to repeat them one day?

Let's face it. We are a meme and motivational quote culture. We hoard words that make us feel good about how we live. But for me, I become jaded when it becomes such of the norm that our belief in those words only lasts until the likes and hearts stop showing up.

That's why MLK Day is such a sore spot for me. Because in 364 days of being bombarded with how humanity uses less and less of its empathy, grace, and critical thinking, its not enough to have ONE DAY when we pay homage the quotes of a man who was asking us to grow our consciousness to look outside of ourselves to listen to understand other's experiences, to hone in on the barriers that keep them from their dreams, to work on solutions to better our country for all people…and not just for ourselves.

That means we have to work on ourselves and ideologies that we hold that damage our communities while on the surface they appear to help. We are by far from perfect, but we are responsible for our own accountability. To make sure that we are not slaves to our opinions and justifications so much so that someone else suffers.

This work on ourselves will be never-ending. We cannot change in ONE day, but we have 364 days to make progress.