Quote of note:
That was the essential triumph of the Million Man March. The black man, everyone knew, was a problem -- criminal, violent, irresponsible, hot-headed, predatory. Yet a million of us came together in a spirit of perfect fellowship. You saw young brothers in baggy jeans helping elegant old men in threadbare suits find a place to rest their weary bones. You saw beautifully educated men from the suburbs holding hands in prayer with regular guys from the 'hood.
...When Millions More strikes its tents, will the myriad problems facing black America be solved? Of course not. It took many decades for our left-behind black communities to fall; it will take time for them to rise. One feel-good rally could never be enough.
But yesterday, on the Mall, you could once again behold that better world that we all saw 10 years ago. Tell me how that can hurt. Tell me how that can do anything but help.
On the Mall: A Vision of Community
By Eugene Robinson
Sunday, October 16, 2005; B07
I walked from my office down to the Mall on October 16, 1995, out of curiosity rather than any sense of mission. I approached the Million Man March the way I approached everything, with a journalist's instinctive skepticism. Wasn't the time for marching long past? Did Louis Farrakhan really speak for me? Couldn't all this time and effort be better spent on a concrete agenda, like registering people to vote?
Hours later, I left the Mall knowing I would treasure that magical afternoon for the rest of my life. So pardon me if I dispute all the stories and columns arguing that in the 10 years since a million black men spent a glorious day in unprecedented fellowship, nothing has really changed.
You can keep your cold-eyed analysis and save all your gloomy statistics. When a locked door is swung open and you see that beyond it lies a better world, something has changed. Even if the door slams shut again, you're not the same person you were before. You can't be.
What I saw that day was possibility. And possibility, even if it's still unrealized, is nonetheless real.
