I was walking down the road. I was small and everything around me was built to have me see it in one way only. I could see it in my house, I could see it on TV. It was on the radio in the news and in songs. I was there and it was who we were.
There were voices in the air about how things were not fair, and it seemed possible, I could not really see it, because it was the men who came before me who painted my entire world, and it was going to take a lot to see it for what it really was.
There was a bridge that I crossed and the land was changing, but all of the knowledge in my head was the same. I could see the landscape changing around me, I even claimed to understand, but I still had far to go.
As decades passed, the journey to a new world could not even be understood and yet somehow, in ultimate fractions, I cracked the shell, I broke the chains of ignorance, I shuttered at the ridiculousness of humanity.
I know that because of the time in which I was born, I will find things in the corners that will need to be thrown away for many years still. If I were to speak, and you only saw what I wore, what I drove, or where I lived despite putting my heart into every word, how would I feel? If I spoke the same language as you and yet you did not listen, how would I feel? How would it feel if this happened every day of my life? What would it be like if you only saw me through your own distorted glass of perception that had no basis at all on who I really am? How strong really are you who have dealt with this for a lifetime?
You and I were born in captivity. Me in ignorance. You in my ignorance. It is something I think of all the time. I think of it in context in the past and of course now as well. The contrasts showing the progress provide both great pride and embarrassment. Until perfection arrives, it will always be this way. The only way in which I know to stay the course is to put myself in your shoes as I walk along, even though I may never truly know what it is like. Sumimasen…