Michael Edward Kohlman

2025-01-20 18:23:42

Remembering the Dream:

These were my grandchildren in 2012 and in 2020:

In them you will find the heritage of parents and grandparents from Central America, Africa, the Caribbean, the British Isles, and Most of Europe. As they have grown and matured, they also represent a multitude of CIS and LGTBQ backgrounds as well. Indeed, many of them have now chosen partners of their own that they love and cherish, regardless of their DNA or their cultural and sexual identities.

And some of them are now having children of their own! Evelia and I as Great-Grandparents, who would have believed it???

I cannot express how proud I am to have been a part of their lives and how much I believe that their background and beliefs have enriched mine.

I am also aware that while we have come far with regards to diversity and tolerance, we still have a long ways to go. It wasn’t that many years ago that there were places myself, my Wife, and our own children could not go without a look, a remark, or a singular attitude that made it clear our mixed family was an aberration that wasn’t approved of. Over a lifetime of marriage however, we saw more acceptance and in good moments, indifference, which is the ultimate acknowledgment that the color of our skins didn’t matter when it came to who we chose to love and who we choose to be.

But the struggle remains real, and I will concede that when, many years ago and many times revised now, I wrote the first version of this tribute to the work of Martin Luther King, I truly believed that in the United States at least I would see the day when everyone would be judged by the Content of Their Character, instead of the Color of Their Skin, Who They Choose to Love, Or Who They Identify As. However as I reach my 60th year in this World, and on this day of stark contrasts in the way our leaders wish to define that path forward, I have come to the sad conclusion that it won’t fully happen in my lifetime.

But like Dr. King, I still believe it will someday happen, and the three(!!!) generations that now succeed me in my and Evelia’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are the reason why.

For they are the colorblind generations, and they are the Leaders of the future. Their diversity and the way they see the world continue to instill in me unshakable faith that The Dream will be achieved.

Thank you, Mr. King for continuing to show us the way.