There is a garden in every childhood

You've heard people say, "Many people don't know they have baggage until they get older and have relationship issues." Actually, everyone has some baggage.

I love the famous quote by Elizabeth Lawrence: "There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again." Often our "garden" is the place where we go to escape and seek refuge.

Whatever nationality we are, our adult attitudes, adult perspectives, adult expectations and adult view of life are all powerfully influenced by our childhood experiences and memories.  When I was growing up in the South, racial tension was at a peak.

My mother was a very open-minded person and believed in equality. If you know anything about this period of American history, you know that where I was born, Little Rock, Arkansas, was a racial hot spot.  My bad experience was hearing my relatives discuss the integration of Central High School and seeing such discussions on television. I was only 3 years old when I learned that integration is easier said than done.

In 1957, a formerly all-white high school was being forced to accept black students. Nine black students, escorted by police, were blocked by large number of white students protesting in front of the school entrance. Governor Faubus refused to accept President Eisenhower's directive and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling ordering the integration of public schools. President Eisenhower had to send federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the nine black students, who became known as the "Little Rock Nine."

The word "integration," a very long word for a 3-year-old, made a lasting impression on me. Around the world the same thing occurs just in a slightly different guise -- not always black and white. The dilemma in Turkey right now is just one international example.

Integration, that long word, is never easy when individuals' wills and past experiences are involved.

I wonder what Rosa Parks' "garden" looks like. Imagine the baggage she had; a black woman in Alabama refusing to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger. She defied a Southern custom of the time.

I was only 10 when President Johnson signed the Civil rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion or national origin.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was instrumental in leading many boycotts for what he believed in, was assassinated in 1968.

It's one thing signing a paper and quite another enforcing it.

It has taken another 40 years and far too many personal experiences of discrimination for that piece of paper that President Johnson signed to become truly effective.

Dr. King delivered his famous speech, "I have a dream," on Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., during a march for jobs and freedom.

Turks are standing for what they believe is right.

Dr. King said: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.' ... I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Presidential candidate Barack Obama represents a new landmark. Although the US has come a long way in its quest for human rights and freedom, it is still a work in progress.

Our "garden" is not just a place to escape and be safe. When I was a kid -- a lot more was  going on and it was actually worth taking seriously. There were moral question and, ethical questions, as well as aesthetic questions.

And there's something inherently comic about the garden. It's a situation where nature always has the last word and is always pulling out the rug from under us.

Keep standing up for what you believe is important!