In 1968, I guess a lot of us wondered if times could ever get better. They couldn’t have gotten much worse - a terrible war, a crisis of human rights, a slain leader. But it did get better. And Coretta helped with that with everything she had for as many years as she could give - as a symbol and as a person.
But today, as I watched our current leaders give their eulogies, or the prayer for her in the Senate, I found myself getting angry. A lot of the current State of the Union, the sad State of the Union, is fueled by the kind of racism and prejudice that we fought against back then. King’s last war was a War on Poverty, and our government has dissembled much of our progress in that area. The Senate may have been eulogizing Ms. King, but at the same time they were confirming a new justice who is no friend of our rights. And we’re in another terrible war.
It’s the spirit of the Movement that matters. Not the words.