Chad Marlow

Reflections on a Memorial for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today was a very special day in America. Today, we broke ground on a memorial, on our National Mall, for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King is not only the first African-American to have a monument built in his honor on our National Mall, but he is also the first individual who did not serve in elected office to have such an honor bestowed upon him. It is in that direction that my thoughts turn this day. It reminds me that Dr. King, among all the wondrous things he stands for, stands for the power of the individual. He reminds us that one person can make a difference. And it is in that moment of realization that I find myself dumbstruck by the fact that a person of Dr. King's decency, courage, brilliance, love and mystique was, after all, just a human being like the rest of us. It is almost impossible to fathom.

Dr. King is to the United States what Nelson Mandela is to South Africa and what Mahatma Gandhi is to India. He is among a handful of "ordinary people" who in the twentieth century accomplished extraordinary things that forever changed the direction of their nations and world. It is worth pausing, especially here on the blog of an organization that traces it roots to Dr. King, to allow ourselves to be reminded once again by the memory of Dr. King that if even a single person is willing to fight from the bottom of their soul for what (s)he believes in, (s)he can dramatically change the world for the better.

As a final thought, I feel it important to note that the conservatives of today who praise Dr. King trace their roots back to those who fought so bitterly against him during his lifetime. The barriers placed upon our society by those who proudly brand themselves as conservatives subscribe to the same ideological foundations and justifications as the conservatives of decades past. That is a fact that fills me with anger and disgust. but I know that Dr. King would ask us all to reject that anger and turns our energies towards more positive feelings and undertakings. And so we must. But that does not prevent us from pointing out that Dr. King, like all of the great Americans who today's conservatives and liberals have come to mutually honor and cherish, like Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, were the PROGRESSIVES of their day. It is a truism, as examining the contemporary friends and foes of Dr. King illustrates for us, that no one who has advocated for policies that divide us or would return us to the practices of the past has ever moved our nation forward.

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Posted at 6:41 PM, Nov 13, 2006 in Progressives
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