While visiting snowy DC last week, my daughter and I took in a Charles Darwin exhibit at the Smithsonian. As we strolled through I wondered if we humans have evolved — not in a physical way but rather in our treatment of one-another and the planet.
Here are two accomplishments in the last 50 years that suggest we have:
Civil Rights: Another Smithsonian exhibit featured a replica of the Greensboro, North Carolina lunch counter where 50 years ago four brave African American college students refused to leave, defying the former discriminatory practices of this and many other businesses and institutions. Today, an African American president and his family reside less than a mile from this exhibit in the White House and Washington DC has its fifth African American mayor.
Bald Eagle Conservation: Soon after arriving in DC, I spotted a Bald Eagle soaring over the Potomac River. Back in the early 1960s, the Bald Eagle population in the U.S. plummeted to only 417 pairs in the lower-48 states. Now more than 7,000 pairs inhabit the continental U.S., including 850 pairs in Washington State alone! Bald Eagles are no longer on the Endangered Species list. This happened thanks to a combination of the banning of DDT, the Endangered Species Act, and vigorous protection of Bald Eagle nesting sites.
I realize there have also been transgressions in the past 50 years, and areas of no progress. But consider other major positive changes that have occurred since then like no-smoking laws, recycling, women’s rights, and the end of South African Apartheid, just to name a few. We can evolve if we want to.
