If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he would bemoan that America remains so far from the Promised Land of his famous dream. It speaks volumes in this respect that President-elect Trump marked observations of this holiday two years ago with a racist rant against MLK protégé John Lewis.
I commented in “Observing MLK Day 2017,” January 16, 2017.
____________________
After Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said that Russian interference undermined the legitimacy of his election, the preternaturally thin-skinned Trump reacted by impugning Lewis’s character and life’s work:
Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017
This he said of a man who bears well-known scars from marching with MLK for civil rights. Lewis also happens to be the most revered black man in America today – as Obama himself would concede.
As for his district, far from ‘falling apart [and being] crime infested,’ Atlanta is the very manifestation of that ‘shining city upon a hill’ former President Ronald Reagan envisioned in his farewell address. Moreover, no less a Republican bible than Forbes named his district ‘the ninth best place in America for businesses and career development, and among the best for job growth and education.’
____________________
Yet, remarkably, then President Trump marked observations last year with a racist rant against “shithole countries” like Haiti and all those in Africa.
Evidently, when it comes to immigration, he wants people to be judged by the color of their skin, not by the content of their character. This is why he reportedly huffed that too many are coming from those black countries and not enough from white ones … “like Norway.”
I commented in “Only an Asshole like Trump Would Call Caribbean and African Countries ‘Shitholes,” January 12, 2018. But I see no point in elaborating.
The point is that, given the way he marked previous ones, it should come as no surprise that Trump is marking observations this year with more racism. After all, he triggered a government shutdown 31 days ago in a temper tantrum because Democrats refused to appropriate the billions he wants to build a wall to keep brown migrants from “invading” the country.
And he’s only compounding his racist huff by insisting that those migrants, who number in the thousands, are creating a humanitarian crisis (in Mexico) that only his wall can solve. After all, he’s blithely ignoring that the furloughed government workers, who number in the hundreds of thousands, are facing a humanitarian crisis of his making.
Like most Americans, the vast majority of those workers live paycheck to paycheck. And not receiving that paycheck is forcing many of them to stand in Soviet-style breadlines, miss mortgage and rent payments, and withdraw children from after-school activities. (Russian President Vladimir Putin could not have scripted a more gleeful turnabout of events for his Manchurian president to trigger.)
Not to mention the danger Trump is imposing upon airline passengers. This, because many TSA agents are saying they can’t afford to show up to screen them for no pay.
Incidentally, Trump’s racist antics forced Lewis to lead boycotts of his State of the Union Address in 2017 and 2018. And Trump has given him just cause to do the same this year. Except that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have spared him the effort. Because she has informed Trump that she’s rescinding the invitation for him to deliver it this year until he comes to his senses and ends the shutdown.
But, hey, this is MLK’s day.
It is most noteworthy that he is the only private citizen (black or white) to have a federal holiday declared in his honor.
Hell, even Washington and Lincoln have to share one holiday on Presidents’ Day. And, with the August 2013 dedication of his memorial, MLK is now perched on the Mall alongside them in perpetuity. All of which might explain why Washington’s monument is glaring down on MLK’s …
Seriously, though, am I the only one who thinks the Washington Monument looks eerily like a stonemason’s homage to the KKK …?
There was considerable media coverage last week of workers rappelling down the Washington Monument to inspect damage caused by the recent earthquake. However, while most people seemed mesmerized by the acrobatic feat this entailed, I could not help noticing how much up-close images of the cone of the Monument resemble the hood of a Klansman.
Is it not a curious thing that this everlasting monument to the slave-holding Washington pays unwitting homage to this everlasting symbol of white supremacy?
(“Washington Monument’s KKK Imagery,” The iPINIONS Journal, October 2, 2011)
Whatever the case, this holiday is not just a testament to MLK’s greatness. It’s a symbolic down payment on the promissory note that represents the unpaid, if not unpayable, debt America owes descendants of the blacks it enslaved.
That said:
This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Related commentaries:
MLK Day 2017…
Only an asshole…
Manchurian president…
KKK imagery…