Lightning Makes No Sound Until It Strikes

This Monday is a federal holiday, Martin Luther King Day, the observance of the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. whose actual birthday is this Friday, the 15th. Schools, with classes in session and/or in virtual learning, as well as government operations, will be closed as communities across the country join hands and hearts if only for an all-too-brief moment, to celebrate his life and to consider our progress as a nation in the ongoing journey for equal rights for anyone and everyone.

This is quite the moment in history to attempt to calculate the distance we've come and, perhaps, more importantly, start a discussion about what still lies ahead for us and how to achieve it. The observance of his birthday could reduce King's life and death (and everything in between) into what I fear has too often has devolved into a fast-food, bumper-stickers as policy discussions, and dueling toxic information ecosystems  'race relations' place-holder event instead of a means of stepping back and seeing a larger picture where he is another chapter in the struggle for equal rights that includes and encompasses Black Lives Matter, but so much more above and beyond. 

Then on next Wednesday, January 20th, is the Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Last Wednesday, like you, I'm sure, I sat in gob-smacked disbelief as, in the words of the Speaker of the House and a former US President, armed rioters, fueled by falsehoods and false hopes, chose 'their whiteness over democracy' in what looked, sounded, and smelled an awful lot like an armed insurrection. 

Both events are inextricably linked one to the other and, like the White Lion arriving in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, are part and parcel of hundreds if not thousands of steps, made with sometimes powerful strides and other times, halting and unsure, as we continue to wend our way from who we once were to whom we hope to become. It may be the journey of our lifetimes, and that's fine as long as we don't falter or stop.

Martin Luther King Day is a good day for inventory on how well we're sharing the American Dream. I believe we have come a long way in my lifetime, and his, in how we live with one another, but acknowledge we still have a long way to go. As it turned out, he wasn't able to be with us at the mountain, as he had feared for very probably the reasons he knew, but celebrating his birthday helps underscore how important each of our lives is to all of us and to one another.

Change is incremental and individual and is simultaneously a team sport and intensely personal at the same time. Don't ever believe you can't change something because you're only one person. Rather, please know that all you need to be is one person and while you can't change everything you can still change something. 

I'm thinking that on Monday and then extending to all the other days of the calendar, we should see the words and deeds of Dr. King as a call for each of us to find our better angels and where each of us finally lives in a nation where we are not judged by the color of our skin but by the content of our character. 

Such a vision truly implemented would transform King's dream into our shared reality and would, I hope, empower and enable each of us to reach and teach those like us as well as those unlike us. As we should have realized by now, it's this fear of 'the other' (be it race, creed, color, or political ideology) that creates the greatest barrier to equality, freedom, and justice for all.
-bill kenny