progress is not a straight line

Progress is not a straight line. I am reminded of this from time to time. We just elected Barack Obama president; a great leap forward for diversity. And Proposition 8 passed in California -- a great step back for diversity. Progress is incremental. We inch forward. Sometimes we cannot even measure the distance we've gone, but still its there. Only when we combine days and years of minute moves do we see the real picture. Go back 150 years. A fraction of a second of world history. And women can't vote. Blacks can't vote. Our kids go to school with their "own kind". We marry our "own kind". No one knows anyone who is gay. Well, the two sweet ladies down the street have been room-mates forever, but.... The progress is real, it's there -- it's just not as fast as we want. We're not where we need to be. But we will get there. Inch forward. Get one person, just one, to understand we have so much more in common than we have differences. Write one letter to an editor. Call one congressman. Vote in one election. Progress is not linear. It's just one. one foot in front of the other, day after day after day. Just ONE.