As of today, it has been exactly 50 years since the assassination of one of the great peacemakers of our time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As I reflect on 2017 and the first quarter of 2018, I think of all the bitterness and bigotry that I have heard about. Living in Atlanta, I hear from two opposite ends of the spectrum daily: black progressives and white conservatives. With the history of the Confederacy and the outrage at Confederate monuments and Battle Flags, it makes me think about how different parts of the US truly are. I hear about the casual use of the n-word in Paulding county schools, a racially segregated graveyard in Camilla, GA, racial profiling and planting of drugs on minorities in Dothan, AL. And of course the police shootings of unarmed black people that spark more outrage. I also saw a video of black people holding a mentally challenged white friend hostage and effectively torturing him. I listened as the San Bernardino shooting occurred, then the Pulse Night Club shooting was reported, then the Las Vegas Harvest Music Festival shooting, then the Parkland Florida school shooting, and most recently the shooting at Great Mills High School in Maryland. I think about my own life and how I didn't deal with those things growing up. And, for the most part, people don't have to worry about it, but there are always those who do and looking out for those who do deal with it is definitely, I feel, in accordance with Dr. King's philosophy. We all have a share in this society and we do need to look out for one another. It always takes a lot of hard work and dedication, and like Dr. King when he was alive, it may cause a great deal of disapproval. Dr. King even received an anonymous suicide letter believed to have come from the FBI. He was seen at the time as an agitator, a fraud, a communist sympathizer, and destructive to race relations. Today he is celebrated as a unifier, peacemaker, and pivotal figure in the Civil Rights movement. Today, though, we still have the war on drugs, mass encarceration, predatory lending practices, hate, and bigotry to work through. I think about the ways that I can be the change I want to see in society as I reflect on the work of Dr. King. And while I may not agree with all of the solutions proposed to end problems of racial disparity, I am willing to listen and truly consider the positions of the progressive movement while also finding out what the opposition believes. Then I can do my own independent research and inform myself better. That way, in my own way, I can help bring that vision into reality. So to Dr. King and his family, I know we can make a better society for all.
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6 years ago
04 Apr 2018 23:11 CEST
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