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.
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