Choices in Time: Shaping Our World Line 🌎

I love Neil deGrasse Tyson’s description of World Lines—our trajectory through space and time. Our business meeting is set for Corner X of Building Y, on Floor Z—but whether our paths actually cross depends on time. Every moment presents infinite choices, shaping our World Lines—personally, collectively, and historically.

This morning, I drove my son and his friends to the airport for their Model United Nations conference. Despite their diverse backgrounds, they connected effortlessly, embracing and respecting each other’s perspectives.

This past week, my daughter and I discussed how some of her friends unknowingly make ignorant remarks. "No one is racist anymore," she said, referring to her generation. Her words gave me pause.

My great-grandmother fled the South during the Great Migration after my great-great-grandfather was warned that a lynch mob was coming. That night, they left behind their land, possessions, and the life they had built to start anew in Detroit.

But survival came at a cost. Generations of trauma followed—poverty, addiction, and fractured families. My ancestors also carried another painful legacy—the Trail of Tears, where Native American people suffered forced displacement and brutality.

My parents met when interracial marriage was illegal in most states. They faced discrimination in communities, restaurants, and public events.

I still feel the sting of a middle school football game. A pile-on tackle. Someone digging their nails into my back, whispering the n-word, telling me to stay down. I may not have understood the hate, but I learned something greater: goodness is everywhere.

I imagined a World Line for America—one where we embraced our past with the same resolve we apply to 9/11: Never Forget. Our Statue of Liberty would stand with a different design—her right hand raising a torch, her left breaking free of chains, a symbol of freedom and the end of slavery.

History classes wouldn’t sanitize the past. We would openly confront the realities of racial terror—how brutal lynchings became public spectacles, with body parts kept as souvenirs. We would study the deep psychological and systemic trauma carried by the descendants of both the persecuted and the perpetrators—and, most importantly, we would learn to heal, forgive, and reconcile.

With this understanding, we would help other nations heal from their own painful histories, becoming a country that unites rather than divides.

As I look at my children and their friends, I see glimpses of this reality. Perhaps my daughter is right—maybe, for her generation, racism is no longer the norm. The question is: Will we nurture this progress or allow history to repeat?

I believe our World Line is exactly where it should be—on the path to fulfilling a greater purpose as a divine civilization.

Much love, dear readers. Be courageous. With every choice to stand and role model, we move closer to "one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." 🇺🇸✨

© Nuri Dimler 2025