Martin Luther King Day, celebrated on Monday |

He would have been 94 yesterday. But, because the Feds consider holidays should occur on a work day, we are honoring Martin Luther King today. Of course, MLK was murdered decades ago- which is one reason why he is not alive today.

Six years ago, i joined about 149 of my fellow congregants traipsing about Selma, Alabama. Our goal was to recreate for ourselves and our children an event that happened almost 6 decades (59y) ago. The March from Selma to Montgomery.

With tremendous awe, we realized we were walking in the shoes of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Reverend James Reeb, Joanne Bland, and a slew of others. We also recreated Rosa Parks’ abbreviated bus ride in Montgomery. Morosely, I felt the pain of four young children murdered by an American terrorist at the 16^th Street Baptist Church. Because we spent our weekend in all of these locations.

That trip helped me finally understand the part of registering Blacks to vote in Nashville, Tennessee played in the grand scheme of things. Those efforts complemented other college students’ work to change the process in the cities of Farmville (VA), Greensboro (NC), Charleston (SC), Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma (AL), Albany (GA), Little Rock (AR), and New Orleans (LA).

Given the pervasive racism (not to mention rampant anti-Semitism) that is overtaking our great nation (starting with TheDonald- with his acceptance of neoNazi marches in Charlottesville (Virginia) and his rampant deprecation of Blacks and Hispanics (including his “Shithole Countries” characterization), it’s time we all reflect on the lessons that should have been learned- and sealed- by the example of the Reverend Martin Luther King’s life.

You can see the effects that our recreated march had on the adults and the children – our observations have been enshrined in print.

Many of you think it’s the Washington Post that coined the phrase “democracy dies in the darkness”. It wasn’t. Martin Luther King attempted to shine a light everywhere to keep it going for the rest of us.

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2 thoughts on “Martin Luther King Day, celebrated on Monday”

Interesting that various sources online point to Bob Woodward first using this expression, but it’s also interesting how many quotes are misattributed. So, if MLK used this first, it just proves once again what a far-seeing man he was. I do remember when you and other members of your congregation visited Selma to walk in the footprints of giants.