MLK Day

While we cannot and should not canonize, and while the virtue of one man should not be mythologized until he is no longer a man, proper deference MUST be paid to the man who individually did more for civil rights in this country than any other man.
Dr. MLK's vision of what America could be transcended our foundations. That vision embraced what the founding fathers could never have imagined, but in whose words the seeds of such liberty were planted. Dr. King, like food for the famished, like penicillin for the ill, like love for the unloved, picked us up, brushed us off, showed us where we were headed and where he knew we could go, and walked us as far as he humanly could. Our debt to him can never be repaid.
And yet WE. MUST. TRY. We owe it to ourselves to reach and excel beyond the bar he set. Because we (ALL of us, black and white, men and women, gay and straight, able-bodied and not) DESERVE IT. We should not settle for a world that gives us any less. It is our birthright as children in God's gracious world.
These times are trying. It is easy to feel defeated. Strong forces are working against us. BUT THEY WILL NOT WIN. Something inside each of us knows that they will not. Something inside each of THEM is fearful and knows that they will not succeed, and so they trash with the violence and anger of the cornered. BUT THEY WILL NOT WIN. If we do not give up.
So let's take today as a day to reflect, to fortify, and to continue fighting to bring about the inevitable glory.