MLK Day

As I thought about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today and what he might think about where we are,  as a society and realized I myself am torn – on one hand we see inroads made every day, barriers torn down and in the same breathe, hug breaches of civil rights, racial abuses and murders by police departments and the push the president and some Americans to put up a wall to keep refugees out because of the “huge threat” it is claimed they pose, although statistics over many years show the threat to be low.

I think he would have found that the working class poor in this country have similar or even deeper challenges, that overt racism, although still here, has in some cases been replaced with muted, underhanded racism.

He’d find that religious discrimination against LGBTQ+ persons is at an all time high, with groups actively working to remove protections – and in fact this is happening even in racial situations with some groups arguing that Equal Opportunity laws are no longer needed.

And yes, you can be a Republican and still be my friend and we can have differences in opinion like our views on government spending or approaches to curb poverty.

But when your difference of opinion reach to pull back basic respect for fellow human beings rights to live, love or work – then we’re really past reconcilable or even ignorable differences. It doesn’t mean I won’t engage you.

But you can bet that I am working with everything I’ve got to non-violently change our wish or ability to discriminate. Against minorities. Against the aging. Against women. Against those with different sexual and gender identities. Because of what we learned from him.

The struggle continues, Dr. King. I’m so sorry to say. At least we have your wisdom and words to help continue to guide us.