I have been thinking a great deal about the injustices so many aboriginal people face and wonder why more of us who are concerned do little about it. I also think a great deal about our changing climate and why it’s so easy to “fiddle while Rome burns”.

Perhaps my desire to hold on to the privileges I have, and the fear that if I let them go, I’ll be bereft of everything I value keeps me from doing more. That takes me to William King and Lucretia Mott, two 19^th century reformers who feature prominently in the Emma Field series. Neither one, seemed to let fear govern their lives. Nantucket Island-born, Quaker Lucretia Mott played a key role in the anti-slavery, women’s and native rights movements of her day. On the north shore of Lake Erie, Irish-born William King established an exemplary community of some 1,200 free Blacks and fugitives from the Underground Railroad.

I think I still have a lot to learn from them. So in honour of Black History Month, I will post passages from Williams King’s autobiography of 1892. And using the “Circle of Trust” approach of author Parker Palmer, I invite you to contribute your own musings about your own experiences.