Blacks. Latinos. Native Americans. Even women. Seems like everybody gets their own month now, doesn’t it?

Maybe they should. As a wise woman once said, ‘In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need a month for these things.’

In an ideal world, the history, heritage and accomplishments of everyone would be recognized and lauded.

Children would learn more than the accomplishments of dead white men — and Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Tecumseh and Betsy Ross would not be tokens in a history class.

What’s more, we would not use these three groups to satisfy what ‘minority’ means. We would recognize Asian, Indian, Pacific Islander, Eastern European and every other racial and ethnic delineation, as well as a combination of the above.

We would recognize the history and accomplishments of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and asexual people. We would celebrate the lives of teachers, students, and the mentally physically and developmentally different.

We would laud the people who made a difference but never made it into the history books.

You’re beginning to think, ‘Hey. That’s ridiculous. Besides, we don’t even have enough months in the year for all those people.’

Exactly.

Because in an even more ideal world – if that superlative exists – we as a nation and a society would never relegate a group of people and their work to a single month, week or day.

But we do.

They say the winners write the history books. That’s true. But even when the majority tries to ease its conscience by including the excluded, there’s something missing. When we assign cultural diversity requirements, we’re only taking the first (albeit sideways) step.

We’re not living in a perfect world. We’re living in a college community, where we have the best opportunity to challenge our own thinking. We have the opportunity to discover more about the rest of humanity and not just our own group.

We didn’t have this chance growing up, most likely, and we probably won’t have it after we graduate.

So rather than cry ‘Why Not Me?’ or propose (as some have done) ‘White History Month,’ let’s celebrate what we can.

These history months should not exist — they should be a part of our learning and culture. But since this information is not, we need to take it upon ourselves to explore the under-recognized and the unrecognized.

We owe it to ourselves and our fellow humans to realize that not every great act, book, song or thought was done by dead white men.

More importantly, we need to realize that recognizing the achievements of others never takes away from the achievements of those we know.