King's American dream

We human beings seem to love homing in on our differences as a source of endless conflict. Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank, Muslims and Hindus in India, immigrants and locals in Europe - the list of battles in progress is endless. Nationality, race, religion - whatever the disparity may be, we can't help but point it out, often with the barrel of a gun.

We've done our fair share of infighting here in the U.S. as well. First it was European settlers who couldn't stomach the thought of sharing a continent with "savages" who didn't have faith in a "civilized" god. Women's suffrage was a fight between the sexes; the U.S. Civil War was a brawl between those who wanted an end to slavery and those who thought it was their right to have more rights than others.

The Civil Rights era highlighted the glaring truth that this latter mentality was still entrenched in many, but by emphasizing our similarities as people, black leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed out the path to a better future for everyone.

"We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now," said King, a sentiment of brotherhood that resonated with Americans of all stripes and helped lead to social progress for many.

This all-inclusive revolution of thought - that our common humanity and our love for country could bind us together - didn't begin or end with King.

Soon after the civil rights movement got rolling, the disability rights movement and a renewed woman's liberation movement improved the lot of many others.

Persecution and bias based on our individual differences have seen a steady decline throughout this country's history, but the fight is ongoing, evidenced by the growing gay rights movement which insists on securing the same privileges and liberties enjoyed by the rest of society.

This is just the latest birth-pang in America's 200-year-old delivery of universal liberty. It's been a long and painful labor, and one that may never end, but when the first minority president of the United States is sworn into office next week, that baby will finally start crowning.

Over the course of his campaign, Obama said, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America - there's the United States of America."

Of course, our internal strife won't go away solely because we've elected a president who isn't old and white, but our choice for new, different leadership does prove one thing: more of us than ever before are open to a representative who shares our diversity.

Our country is a work in progress, but more than any other country in the world, the U.S. has the power to lead by example and to radically change existing world attitudes concerning the acceptance of diversity.

Through the struggles we've overcome as well as the way we choose to deal with the battles we still face, we've shown that a wide spectrum of people can come together to live in an unusually peaceful way.

We've shown that forgiveness for past wrongs is possible and that diversity, far from being consigned to an area of constant conflict, can be embraced as an agent of unity.