The Stairway Toward Equality

We have all been taught our nation's history from the view point of the English-speaking, white, male, heterosexual, relatively wealthy, Christian majority, with its roots in Western Europe. Every other citizen or resident of the United States of America has been relegated by many of the most powerful individuals and groups as Less-Thans, not as worthy of dignity, respect, equality, or equal justice. Periodically, the winds of unbridled historical truth, and the beginnings of...
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We have all been taught our nation's history from the view point of the English-speaking, white, male, heterosexual, relatively wealthy, Christian majority, with its roots in Western Europe. Every other citizen or resident of the United States of America has been relegated by many of the most powerful individuals and groups as Less-Thans, not as worthy of dignity, respect, equality, or equal justice. Periodically, the winds of unbridled historical truth, and the beginnings of reformative change blow through our hair and we exalt. We espouse principle over tradition, the humanity of us all, and another step up the stairway toward equality. We have made inroads. The reality of our united destination remains elusive. Why? Because we, the devalued Less-Thans, destined to become the majority in a few decades, have all been guilty of mistaking a step upward for the final ascent to the desired platform above Less-Than status. We have been blinded by the exuberant glare of the moment. We have fallen prey to deflections. War, famine, natural disasters, economic depression, epidemics and pandemics, a host of other issues that seemed as important at the moment, and backlash camouflaged as progress but, in reality, the undoing of gains. The pendulum has been particularly swung backwards against people of color literally dozens of times.
Context matters. Come along with me on my personal journey up this staircase from pre-teen into my ninth decade. On these pages, share what I saw and heard along the way in the context of the times. See how humanitarians and civil libertarians have defined and connected the dots. See how many within the entrenched powerful or self-proclaimed entitled have erased those connecting bonds between the dots in the name of the status quo, the "good old days", the way our forefathers intended us to be, racial preference, or the dictates of one religion over all others. But most of all see the facts as well documented as possible from all points of view and connect the dots for yourselves.
Welcome along.