As we all celebrate a New Year and many today are off in observance of Martin Luther King Jr., it occurs to me that as generations pass, the impact of what the day means–what it means to all of us, lesses with each passing year.

America as a nation is a fairly young nation, at least in comparison to the rest of the world. And yet we sit at the front of the stage in the eyes of the rest of the world as a leader in almost every vertical; industry, science, economics, education (higher education), military, humanitarian relief, the list goes on and one and on. And yet through all of this, the blemishes that exists and the blood that has stained our hands through events of our forefathers past, have yet to heal in the nations wounds and allow us to move forward. We are still in many ways a nation divided, divided in socio-economic silos where while we don’t openly admit segregation and inequality, in many ways we are facing the same very real problems in very different shapes and forms.

And yet the fight to continue the pursuit that icons such as Martin Luther King Jr. and many others have risked their lives and have in many cases died for, but as generations are born and mature, the same type of icons have yet to step forward and continue the unexplored challenges that face us in this brave new world.

Social media, the internet, faster pace in business, faster pace in our lives, mass media, and globalization of our economies and politics have all attributed to a new generation that may have false beliefs that with the dissemination of  information to all people that we in turn will see the same types of social changes that took years of sweat and tears by a tireless few good people. But in fact I would argue that what we see is somewhat like treading water in the middle of the ocean. With information comes a lot of good information but also a lot of bad or misleading information. Information published by everyone comes with it a certain degree of risk in terms of credibility but also we find that because there are so many who want to have a voice there is a sort of information overload that occurs and the messages get lost as a sea of white noise. Very similar to how difficult it would be to spot someone floating in the middle of an ocean, or find a satellite with your naked eye in the big open sky, finding that credible information in the sea of what amounts to meaningless information because the same effort in futility.

As we move forward both today and in years to come, we need to remain focused on the fact that the challenges that our forepeople experienced while different than we see today, are no less real and upon us. While there aren’t separate bathrooms for blacks and whites, we see new realisms caused by events of 9/11 where we are fearful of a group of people based on appearance and beliefs. Still we have political correctness when it comes to how we address people of different color, African-American’s, Black Americans, to the rest of the world we are just all Americans. Or when you go into a business and see two people, one man and one woman doing the same job, and yet the woman does not get equal pay for the same work. Even looking at our military where woman have skirts and men pants, or the standards where society judges women’s ages to the point where the cosmetic industry booms in the billions of dollars as more and more woman seek out the fountain of youth to remain young, attractive, competitive and up to the standards the world sets for them, and yet their male counter parts can become all of the opposite (fat, less attractive, hair in all different sorts of places). The issues of segregation and inequality and still very much alive and very much a fact of life.

We need to as a people come to terms with the fact that in our past there are things there that do not reflect on the virtues that built this proud nation, and yet those events did happen and we need to forgive ourselves and each other for these acts. No measure of compensation or apologies can change the fact that these events did happen, so it’s in all of our best interests to learn how we can put this in the past and move forward. I ask those who make statements such as, “If we put this behind us, we forget and we let the pain of our fathers go on with no meaning and no purpose”. To those people, I argue that if this was so important to you, why have you not taking up the fight to pursuit further civil rights and equalities not just to pursuit the inequality that exists between whites and blacks, but what about Asians, Europeans, Indian, Mexican, etc and not to mention the subcultures within each groups that are further segregated based on their beliefs or other factors.

The issue of the treatment of slaves in American history should be put in context to the larger issue of how the overall segregation has become an issue one that must be dealt with on an overarching approach instead of focus made to just one race or group of people. Make no mistake we are at a critical juncture here where we as humans, all people created equal, will need to unit and come together and put our differences aside for a greater good. I don’t make excuses or assertions that those divides do not exist and the meaning behind them are not still painful, but the more that we put these labels on color and race and beliefs, we will further ingrain into our very DNA the idea that people can be judged without knowing the person and just purely on superficial markers such as skin color, dress, gender, or other religious markers.

Martin Luther King Jr. was just one man, and in the face of these new challenges it will take many more good people of all different walks of life to make the small changes that will in effect turn the tide in the many. We look at his actions today and should feel inspired not just to have another day off, but to reflect internally on how we can make a difference and in each of us make the change in our judgement, in our very behavior that will lead others to follow in our footsteps. By changing the way we act and behavior in small steps we can look to make the larger social changes needed to forgive ourselves and to bring us all closer together. Only through these measures can we bridge the divides that are caused by segregation and inequality and create a better future for our children and children’s children. If we do not take these steps now, we give them a world in which they will have to come up with these answers themselves. Just like the issue of global climate change if we do nothing, then we condemn future generations to pay for our mistakes and misjudgment and leave the burden on them to figure out how to solve what seems to be unsolvable issues. Look within yourself today, and look at the people around you and wake up from your previous beliefs and judgments and see them for who they are today and what we all are capable of doing tomorrow and in the many days to come.