He Was A Man

  Fifty years since King's assassination, we are in the middle of fights for civil rights, the rule of law and, quite simply, common decency, that he would instantly recognize. The Republican party is dragging as much of the country, and the world, as far into the Pit as it can. And, holding all three branches of government, that is one helluva long way.
  We are fighting back on all fronts.
  And we will win.
  Eventually.
  We will win.
  Martin Luther King is probably more popular today, than at his death. He was derided for his stance against the war in Viet Nam by even the NAACP and others in the movement; and his Poor People's Campaign was thought to be a distraction from fighting racism. Even his belief in non-violence was scorned by some groups within the civil rights movement.
  In many ways, we're finally catching up to him. In others, though, his message, for many, is a watered-down version of what his work actually was.
  In the end, I think, King realized that poverty and militarism oppress all the poor and powerless, and that they have to be fought for all the people, in order to create the conditions to destroy racism and enshrine equality.
  King never had the chance to fully work out his evolving thoughts. It's entirely possible that he never would have. For what he was seeing, I think, in the years before he died, was that every aspect of our flawed existence touches every other, and that they must all be coaxed and prodded and forced into change.
  We are the inheritors and caretakers of civilization. Our responsibility as citizens lasts our lifetime, and follows us to our graves. Every generation must take up the responsibility and the battle. Every generation.
 I said that we would win, and we will. We will hold the line against the enemies of democracy and equality and we will drive them back. All of history proves the power of the human will to overcome. We shall.