Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek has recently began a journey as old as humanity itself. Over the course of the next seven years, Salopek plans to make the 21,000-mile trek from Ethiopia to Tierro Del Fuego, South America — on foot. He will be traveling with native peoples and experiencing a vast array of cultures throughout his journey.
Salopek’s journey is happening at an important time in history. New media, especially the Internet, have sped up globalization, and there has been an understandable conservative backlash in response. Issues of race, gender, and morals have again been brought back into the forefront of the public conscious after what seems to have been a relatively cool few decades after the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Salopek’s journey will play a role in addressing the reemergence of these issues.
Change does not come easily to most of us, especially those of us who are a part of families that have certain traditions rooted in our histories. It won’t be easy, but I hope that we all will someday look past the largely superficial traits of color, gender, and sexual preference and focus on our common human heritage — what makes us similar rather than what makes us different.
I applaud Salopek for making this pilgrimage and wish him godspeed.
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