In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, I previously blogged about discrimination and racism and whether or not they still exist in our Florida community associations.  I won’t do that today.  I was going to write about the fact that segments of the press believes that Trump won the election because White America rose up against Obama’s policies.  But I won’t.  I was going to blog about the tragedy of Chicago’s black youth growing up in the murder capital of America and how the Justice Department announced yesterday that it’s the Chicago Police who are at fault for using too much force.  But I won’t.  I was even thinking about rehashing a prior blog written a few weeks ago about how the Department of Housing and Urban Development (H.U.D.)  has recently issued guidelines for community associations to follow before rejecting applicants with criminal records – taking into account the fact that the criminal justice system is stacked against blacks and Hispanics.  But I won’t.  Finally, I can talk instead about the fact that next month is Black History Month, but I won’t because having certain months of the year designated to teach only about certain races or religions only serves to enforce the idea that we are all not somehow “Americans” with a single history.

In fact, when you look at all of the government policies and findings that are supposed to somehow level the playing field and enhance the respect, love and affection between the races, it appears that the more findings and policies that the government comes up with, the greater the likelihood of friction and intolerance.

So today, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, let’s take National Holidays, National Months, governmental findings and Presidential speeches and policies out of the equation.  In our community associations, let’s just be good to our neighbors whatever color, race or religion they are because that’s how neighbors should behave toward neighbors all the time.  Not just for one day and not just because there’s a holiday that says we should.

There’s a new President about to be sworn in on Friday and I’m sure every Republican, Democrat and Independent among us root for him to do all he can to heal the present divide.  It’s up to each of us however, to make sure that in our own condominiums and in our own HOAs, we treat each other with dignity and respect despite the fact we may look different or worship differently.  It’s up to us, not our government, to teach our own children to do the same thing.  We are all each other’s neighbors and we all owe that to each other.