The Martin Luther King Jr. Marade was an enlightening experience for me. When we first arrived there, I looked around at all the anti-war signs and listened to the harmonious applause for the speakers, and I thought that everyone had the same feelings and general ideas. By the end of the marade I had changed my mind.

I gathered that the marade was supporting exactly what Martin Luther King Jr. stood for: acceptance, non-violence and justice. I honestly believed that almost everyone who attended shared these values, some more strongly than others. I also gathered that people had different ideas about what these ideas meant, which is to be expected, I guess, but I hadn’t thought about that.

I noticed that many of the signs had used King’s words to protest the war. I think this was very clever especially in the spirit of the holiday. I really don’t know whether King would have supported this upcoming war or not, but many of us peace-loving people do not support it. And since many of us see him as a hero and share his beliefs, his words were used in that way. I think that had this been a pro-war rally that his words could have easily been used to support that too. This just shows the different way people can interpret things.

Along the way in the marade we chanted with an anti-war group and sang War with a group of black women. We talked about what a cool, unifying experience this marade was. Then my whole view changed.

A character sporting a Bob Marley bag and a black net t-shirt came up behind my friend with a black Mohawk and said, “What are you doing here? You stand for everything this parade is against!”

We all turned around, shocked because we know that’s all wrong. My friend asked why, and the guy replied that he was a Nazi.

My friend naturally replied that he wasn’t a Nazi and that he was there because he believed in what this march stood for. Several people around us spoke up to defend him. My friend then said something to the guy that really made me wonder how different everyone’s ideas really were.

“What are you doing here – so quick to judge,” he said.

I thought this reply was appropriate considering that we were marching in honor of King and he believed in judging people by the content of their souls, rather than their outward appearance.

Right then I thought that everyone who had seen us there had passed some sort of judgment, the same way I had unconsciously passed judgment on them.

I had thought everyone there thought like me, and was accepting of me the same way I was willing to accept everyone at the marade.

When that guy made that comment, I changed my mind.

I realized that judgment comes so quick that no one realizes it. I immediately judged him as an ignorant, prejudiced man who shouldn’t be marching with us, and that was wrong.

From the marade I learned that assuming people with similar ideas are the same is wrong.

Everyone thinks differently about these common ideas, and I can’t think that because unity is the theme that everyone isn’t still passing judgment on each other.

Perhaps it takes attending a marade such as this and being discriminated against to realize that we do have additional work to do.

It serves as a reminder that we all need to keep working toward the ideals that King’s actions taught us.