Hope in Remembrance

It saddens me this morning to log on and see people, many of whom I know to be thoughtful, reasoning individuals, being, at a best flippant and at worst outright disrespectful about today’s remembrance.  In part, it’s because I have a great deal of respect for Dr. King, flawed in some ways though he may have been, as are we all, but more because it shows how well those who stood for all he, and so many others, fought against have succeeded in burying what it is we truly celebrate on the day which bears his name, the capacity of a society to stand up for what is right and drastically change, without violence, the shape of the world.

Today is not just a day to celebrate a man.  Today is a day for remembrance, as much as Memorial Day, of the sacrifices made by thousands who saw the world both as it was and as it should be and gave so very much to make those things the same.  To disparage this day is to tarnish the memory of what they gave the world.  By standing arm in arm, against those who would rob us of freedom, of choice, who would oppress us, stifle us, in the name of bigotry, profit and blind tradition, those brave few reminded us for one brief, beautiful moment that just because something always has been does not mean that it must, or should, always be.  Over the screams of a nation, and a world, frightened of nothing more than change, which sought to hold down what was right, they showed the strength of a whisper when carried by enough voices to be heard and to make a difference, a susurrus which carried, running beneath it all one simple message, that which is most dangerous to the forces of tyranny and oppression: Change is possible.

In a time when our country is nearly as polarized as it ever has been, when the concept of civil discourse has all but vanished behind talking points and hypocrisy, their message seems all but lost.  But now is when we need it the most, when the powers that be, stronger than ever, if subtler and more insidious, are doing all in their power to strengthen the stranglehold of power over us, feeding us a steady diet of fear, just as they did then, keeping us docile, turning us against one another over things that matter far less than the issues on which we should be standing united.  We are a falling nation where the equality they fought so hard to win is, in a twisted way, finally being brought forth, as children across the country are without health care, living in poverty and denied the education that once allowed their grandparents generation to make this country a force with which to be reckoned.  Their future is bleak and we stand by and allow it to happen, saying that there’s nothing that can be done, that what we would fight against is too powerful, too entrenched, to ever be different.

Those for whom this day is celebrated faced the same doubts, the same dark odds.  But they stood.  They marched.  They lay down weapons and took up arms, raised voices to shout the unalienable truths upon which this country was founded, the hope that every person born in America, or sworn to its defense and prosperity, will have the chance to rise above the circumstances of their birth to be something more, to propel him or herself beyond what fate dealt them and, in so doing, carry the country with it, into a brighter, more prosperous and enlightened future.  That is what they fought for and that is what we must remember today, and every day.