Good morning on this rainy Monday morning. It is Martin Luther  King Jr. Day and therefore a National Holiday. It is an interesting kind of holiday. I think the only thing that closes on this particular holiday are things that are government related like government offices, post-office and mail delivery and banks. Retail places like shops and grocery stores and restaurants are all open. There will, of course, be ceremonies and speeches made here and there. Some churches will hold poorly attended services, and there will be some marches in the street to replicate the marches that Dr. King led; the participants in those will be mostly people from the black communities. (Am I allowed to say “black communities”? I don’t know anymore.) I guess my point in this is that Dr. King was a man with a great vision for all people. He had a wonderful vision of a society that could get past the color of people’s skin and see one another as just another person. He had a vision of a society that we could peacefully live with one another regardless of the color of our skin and ethnic background and we could and treat one another with dignity and lift one another up. He believed in non-violent protest against racism and segregation and injustice at any level. It got him shot down and killed by a hate-filled racist.

I personally think he would be appalled at all of the directions the movement he started has taken and the lack of progress toward his goal that has been made. No ghettos have been eliminated, school systems in black communities are still horribly underfunded. Education opportunities haven’t improved.  Trust between white people, black people, Asian people has gotten worse and more violent. Movements like the Black Lives Matter (BLM) have garnered millions and millions of dollars but have yet to build a single school. The Black Power movement became just another militant stomping around with their fists held high in the air. The Take a Knee movement during the playing of our National Anthem became the most recent decisive symbol and created more hate than support. 

I know this blog today sounds very cynical and I don’t mean it to; but it reflects our society from my perspective. Declaring a holiday might have been well intentioned but I believe the reality is that it really does nothing to solve any of the social justice problems in this country. I don’t think MLK Day has any more relevance that “Presidents Day” or any of the other “holidays” that are reasons to close government offices. I think Dr. King indeed “had a dream” and it was a wonderful dream. I would love to see our society realize that dream someday. Somehow, we need to move past the façade that we care and actually truly care about one another. Somehow our discussions need to become “prayerful conversations”. I personally believe there is a difference between holding a discussion and holding a conversation. Conversations require listening to one another. Discussions are just people presenting their view. Somehow our our actions need to become “prayerful actions”. Somehow we need to learn to actually see our neighbor. Somehow, we need to learn to love our neighbor and figure out a way to realize that we are in fact morally responsible or them. 

That’s it for today. I pray your day is fully blessed. Peace.