#sparkchamber 011821 — Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Each year, on the third Monday in January, America celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Today, in his honor, this post takes a side.
This is the third Martin Luther King, Jr Day since we launched #sparkchamber in later-January four years ago, and the third time this country is in absolute chaos. Chaos this year adding uncontrollable pandemic, economic misery, racial reckoning, violent insurrection, and a second impeachment to the already perilous cocktail of science-denial, reality-distortion, and severe echo-chamber tribalism. Of all the crisscrossed, intertwined threads of carnage and undoing, on this MLK day, we choose to focus on the racial reckoning aspect.
Jonathan Capehart closed his broadcast of The Sunday Show yesterday, with these remarks:
“On May 10th, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, whose life and legacy we celebrate tomorrow, spoke to the Hungry Club Forum in Atlanta. According to the Atlantic, it was an integrated social club of sorts, where sympathetic white politicians and local black leaders could meet out of the public eye.
On that day in 1967, Dr. King addressed what he called three major evils: racism, poverty, and war. And there is one sentence in his lengthy oration that is as relevant today as it was when he said it 53 years ago. “We must face the hard fact,” King said, “that many Americans would like to have a nation which is a democracy for white Americans but simultaneously a dictatorship over black Americans.”
At this very moment, Washington is still reeling from the violence unleashed at the U.S. Capitol by domestic terrorists, incited to insurrection by a sore-loser, white-supremacist president who continues to falsely assert that millions of votes in states with large black populations were fraudulently cast. We’re still reeling from a Jim-Crow caucus of the Republican Party that — despite the failed attempted coup on behalf of the president of their party — objected to the electoral college vote that declared Joe Biden the clear winner.
The second impeachment of Donald Trump last week was as swift as it was necessary. And so must his trial and conviction in the Senate be. The Senate cannot resort to customary laziness. The American people sent them here to do. hard. things. And nothing is harder than holding a rogue President accountable for laying siege to the legislative branch — even after he’s left office. But holding him accountable is a must if our democracy is to survive.
Speaking of how people wanted him to keep his mouth shut on these three evils, Dr. King explained why he couldn’t segregate his moral concerns. I urge all the senators, but especially Republican senators, to heed Dr. King’s words as they ponder whether to convict Donald Trump for acting “in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law.” Here’s what King said: “Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?” But conscious asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there are times when you must take a stand that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but you must do it because it is right.”
Convicting Donald Trump, and thus sending a clear message to anyone who would dare contemplate repeating his offenses would be right.”
Amen. And in the words of Dr. King, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Let us each and every find courage to do what is right at every fork in every road.
Question 1: Where do ideas come from?
You don’t have to see the top of the staircase to take the first step.
Question 2: What is the itch you are scratching?
No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Question 3: Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?
We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.
Question 4: How do you know when you are done?
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!