This day of hope in 2009

As you can see, it's been awhile since I last posted to this blog. I'm writing today because I am incredibly moved by what is transpiring as I write this, and because of what is happening, I am hopeful for "giant leaps" of advancement for human rights in this great country of ours and in the whole world.

Today is Martin Luther King day, and tomorrow is the inauguration of our first African American president. Two young girls and their mother, who are descendents of American slaves, and a man who was born in Hawaii, lived in Indonesia, and whose mother was white and father a black man from Kenya will soon take up residency in our national home, the White House. In a profound way, this story resonates with me, a daughter of a former internee. It must also resonate with other groups who are a part of the darker history of the U.S.: certainly African Americans, but also Native Americans, Japanese Americans, Jewish Americans, and others who have been excluded or discriminated against because of their ethnicity.

My friend Karen Ebel, a lawyer from NH, and others, and our hero, Senator Russ Feingold, and his staff have been working for years to pass THE WARTIME TREATMENT STUDY ACT which would form a commission to shed light upon why my dad, Karen's dad, Heidi Donald and her family, Eb Fuhr and his family, Art Jacobs and his family, Doris Berg Nye's family, and many many others were taken away to internment camps during World War II.

Perhaps this will be the year.
Perhaps we are at the dawn of a new era where light and transparency shed on such issues are seen to be good----guideposts for future generations rather than secrets to be hidden away.