School busing may not be the panacea it was intended to be.

1. School Busing
My views on school busing are conflicting. The purpose of school busing was not
simply to end segregation but also to provide a variety of other experiences for the
students being bused and the students at the school. The primary goal, a means to an end
for long-term unequal education due to class and cultural separation was not met. But
many hurdles were overcome. The relationships that formed between students and
students as well as teachers and students, has had and will have a generational impact.
School Busing did have some benefits to it other than simply scores on a test.
Was segregation defeated by integration? Was the long march to freedom ended or
is it still ongoing? Would E.B. Dixon, Ralph Abernathy, Dr. King and countless others
consider the sacrifice of lives and fortunes for the pursuit of cultural integration and
equality scrapped due to the end of the integrated busing experiment, I do not think so.
The march is ongoing and will be till all cultures find harmony living in existence with
each other. A Multicultural harmonious existence has been the dream of many great
spiritual and political leaders throughout time.
How can you have cultural diversity in a separate culture society? Where the
neighborhoods are still segregated and persons of color are still treated differently. We
have made a lot of progress but there are still generations to go before we meet the goals
envisioned by the enlightened toward world harmony. Separation is not equal.
Separate and equal do not seem to be harmonious in nature. The psychological
differences of being separate eliminate the possibility of cultures ever being equal.
Separated cultures seem to lead to conflict throughout history because ones individual or
cultural beliefs are in conflict with another’s beliefs.

2. I do not think that separate can ever be equal regardless of whose device you use
to communicate. Technology may be a means to that end but it is not the answer. If man
survives the next two hundred years we may see that day when all men and women are
viewed equally. I still have my doubts when seven billion people who live on this earth
today cannot get along and half of the planet lives under the poverty line of segregation
and are still to this day treated unequally from their fellow man. Can the haves ever share
completely with the have not’s? Is the sheer numerical diversity to big a hurdle to
overcome along with all the other cultural differences only time will tell!
2