Yesterday was MLK a day.
Dr changed the country for the better.
MLK was a hero. Point blank. Even with the all the hate that was directed towards him from politicians and government officials, Dr King was a true patriot who loved his country his so much that he would continuously demand that she live up to her true potential.
MLK dreamed that his children would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. We now know that this is not true as black and brown individuals are given the benefit of the doubt at a much lower rate than whites. While unarmed blacks are murdered with impunity at the hands of police, white supremacists are bought Burgers and given water to rehydrate immediately after committing atrocities.
Many decent Americans taught that outright racism was eradicated from the country. Most blacks knew this was not case. The Obama presidency and the events of the past several years have made that abundantly clear. With the murder of George Floyd, protests erupted all over the country. The raw outpouring of anger from protesters led to destruction of property. There is no question that some protests did get out of hand. The racist commander in chief encouraged and praised overzealous police who instead of keeping the peace, decided to have their own riot and inflict as much damage as possible to protesters of all races and creeds, provided they were antiracism protesters (counter racist protesters were treated with care and respect). With their actions during the summer protests, the police proved why the protests took place and needed to take place.
There were some scenes eerily similar to what was going on in Martin’s day. We saw officers gravely injure old men and brutalize women and children. They maimed individuals who posed them no harm and got away with it. Some cops in New York even purposefully coughed on protesters in the thick of the Coronavirus epidemic. DeBlasio and Cuomo never did anything about it. On the flip side, domestic insurrectionists marched to the Capitol of the United States of America, terrorized the place and faced no immediate consequences. Many were escorted gently, and we even saw images of police posing with rioters and opening gates for them to make their invasion that much easier. One police officer even escorted a QAnon shaman into a room in the Senate. We saw that officers can consistently remain calm and not use lethal force when interacting with a subset of the population.
There was no question that had those people been of black skin the result was going to be much different. While there were nearly no arrests on January 6th, a similar riot from black or brown individuals would have resulted in multiple deaths and gruesome state sponsored violence. The killings would have been deemed justified by the executioners, Donald Trump, Republicans, and even most Democrats. Only one person was shot in the Trump riots. She should not have been shot. Clearly, I am not saying the Trump insurrectionists should have all been sprayed with bulets. I am just saying that the police ought to treat everyone the same. This was part of King’s vision. Unfortunately, this is not a reality and it has been brought to the fore.
Today we see right wing figures “celebrating” Dr King. Rest assured that King had been alive they would have despised him, and many still do. They would call him a community organizer and an anti-American socialist. These are same people who rail against “political correctness” yet yield to it when it comes to Dr King. The truth is, King is a real American hero, and they are enemies of our country and supporters of insurrection.
Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day as we remember that there is much work still to be done and enemies hell bent on making sure that bigotry is here to say.
