Peace

“Peace has her victories no less renowned than war.”  John Milton

This seems a ripe peach of a quote to bite into the day following MLK Jr. Day, given his lifelong fupport of peaceful protest.

Victory is generally perceived as something one achieves after a battle, and it is (though there must, necessarily be loss there, too), but the battle does not always involve armies and an arsenal of weapons, nor does it always involve sports teams or games.  Still, peace has, and it will continue to have, victories, but (apologies to Milton) they tend to be less renowned, or at least harder to identify, and less set in stone.

The march into Selma over the Edmund Pettus bridge was a victory, though it came on the heels of Bloody Sunday.  The elimination of “Colored” bathrooms and water fountains – victories.  Voting rights, housing rights, employment rights, all victories.  The election of an African American President (regardless of party affiliation) was a victory.  But still, there doesn’t seem to be a “renowned” VICTORY on the racial front.  There will be no signed document one can point to as a “peace treaty.”  (The Emancipation Proclamation doesn’t seem to have done the job.)  There will be no final score printed in the paper.  The battle goes on.  But as King Jr. noted, it is always the right time to do the right thing — renowned or not.