armsref

Reflection: Alexis de Tocqueville wrote extensively about our tendency as Americans to keep one another at arm's length because of the class or race or sexuality or gender identity that we feel inherently divides us. Despite our progress as a nation through civil rights movements toward equality on all fronts, change is astoundingly slow to take seed in our own hearts, and so much of the progress we make is superficial at best. It's true that at times it seems their is no way to unfasten the rigid strictures of class that have kept minorities still separate from whites even after we've overcome certain discriminatory and unjust legal institutions. Finding harmony as a nation and a people means learning a language of compassion— and perhaps setting aside comfort and convenience for the sake of one another.