MONTGOMERY – We’ve come so far and still have far to go.
The whole world revers Dr. King and our nation celebrates his birthday and his holiday but we are connected to him here. In the South. In Alabama. In Montgomery.
We’ve walked and driven the same streets that he walked and drove on. We’ve patronized establishments or places were establishments stood where he was terrorized and attacked along with many of our predecessors. We might have even looked in the faces of those who opposed him back then.
It doesn’t feel like it. We can have the conversation on progress made and get nowhere.
Absolutely, we’ve come far but how far? We know the challenges presented to us on a daily basis. We know the systematic damage that has been done to us over time. We know what’s going on. That’s already there.
If you watch ANY video on Dr. King today, watch this. You won't find this on any conservatives page, as they're too busy diluting his condemnation of white privilege. But this is one of his most memorable. #MLKDay pic.twitter.com/VHBhfcljTu
— Francis Maxwell (@francismmaxwell) January 21, 2019
So when do we define our value?
The dream was that we would be seen equal and given a fair opportunity to live and be. Our lack of ownership, business ties, political woes and violence rates are just some of the things that we really need to pump the brakes on. This isn’t a push for perfection but a plea for balance.
We can and should be so much better. We are at ground zero of the Civil Rights movement, everyday. All of the history around us, all of the memories. It should drive us. We need to ACCEPT WHERE WE ARE and go UP from there. We have NEVER failed and NEVER WILL, no matter what.
So as we celebrate the man who shaped our lives even if some of us weren’t born yet, let’s recognize the importance of where we were placed. Our home is where others come to see the roots of their national liberation from racial terror. We owe it to ourselves to be the examples of what is should be to be unbound – as much as we can.
We have an inherited responsibility to continue to press on with our social and economic evolution to ensure that the punishment, humiliation and death that Dr. King endured was not in vain. Even with a project such as MGM United, we must set out to continually raise the bar with whatever we do to make sure that we don’t have to keep fighting with our backs against the wall at every turn. At some point, we have to have a fighting chance and only we can give that to us ultimately.
That’s the reality of the situation. Dreams need to be reality.
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.