Monday, 18 January 2016 - 5:00am

The Opportunity is Freedom
--Seth Godin

It is hard to think of the "right words" to say on this day of celebration and commemoration of the life and contributions of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..

Without him, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would still be a dream. Segregated schools, hospitals and diner counters would still be harsh lines of demarcation and hate in our communities. Dr. King exposed the underbelly of our nation's deepest failure and dramatically reduced the egregious impact of racism in public spaces.

And, we all know that the toxin of white supremacy still courses through every vein in the body of America. It continues to weaken our communities and all of us as individuals. Our collective willingness to remain imprisoned by racism eats away at us as human beings.

Freedom from this sickness is possible not because the government makes policies and regulations. Freedom from this sickness is possible not because the religious institutions say we should love one another. Freedom from the sickness is possible not because our educational institutions place black students in the same classrooms as white students.  Freedom from this sickness comes when we recognize the opportunity to save ourselves by choosing our own release from white supremacy--to take our turn at freedom.

My colleague, Kevin O'Connell, author of The Niche Movement, introduced me to an writer named Seth Godin, who wrote "What To Do When It's Your Turn (And It's Always Your Turn)". If you havn't read Godin's work, allow me to recommend it. On one page entitled "The Opportunity is Freedom" Godin says,

"We live in a world that is still filled with barriers and limits, a culture where too often people are judged, stripped of their dignity and denied true freedoms. But at the same time, the economic and technological shifts around have created an entirely new class of ruckus makers and given people the freedom to stand up and acknowledge that it's their turn. Now, more than ever, more of us have the freedom to care, the freedom to connect, the freedom to choose, the freedom to initiate, the freedom to do what matters. If we choose." 

It's up to each one of us to choose.