Perception

Picture, if you will, for a minute, A leader. A man rooted deeply in his home community, In the nutritious soil of faith and belief in righteousness. A man who knew the struggle of those he preached to, the black men and women who knew no world but one of oppression, Chained still by their ancestry. He took these chains into his able hands, pulling them at their every link, Dragging them through the streets in marches to show the people's will to break away. He marched the oppressed through Selma, Montgomery, and the nation's capital, Hoping somewhere their chains would touch something, Anything, That could break them. He was an NAACP leader, yet a criminal in the blinded eyes of the law. A promoter of freedom, yet one who would accept incarceration so that others would not have to. Now, Do you have this picture in your mind? Let me ask you then, Is it of a white man, Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, By the name of Father James Groppi? And if the answer to this question is no, Then I ask you to take this knowledge and recognize that Civil Rights is not a black issue, Nor a white issue, Nor one only for those affected by the discrimination, As Father James Groppi was none of these things, but holds accomplishments equal to those who were. Biased perception is not a thing of the past.