Honoring Dr. King on Our Way to the Promised Land

Today would have marked the 92nd birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

He left us more than five decades ago – with the nation in turmoil over civil rights, the Vietnam War, women’s rights, fair housing, poverty, unemployment and so much more. There was marching in the streets and discord.

The night before his passing in 1968, Dr. King gave a fateful – now historic – speech in which he said, “I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land….”

He was referring to Black Americans that night. But today, his remarks could be applied through the lens of all Americans. We, as a nation, still haven’t reached that promised land – that perfect union with justice and domestic tranquility that was ordained in the U.S. Constitution by our founding fathers.

Like Dr. King, I believe we can get there one day – if we try.

But in the midst of this national crisis – the unprecedented insurrection on Capitol Hill, the threats to our democracy in state capitols nationwide and the domestic civil unrest, the likes of which this generation has never seen – the promised land seems far away, and I find myself wondering what Dr. King might have thought of the state of our nation today.

I imagine he’d be celebrating the inauguration of Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, the first woman, Black and person of South Asian descent to occupy the office. He probably would have noted the selection of Rep. Deb Haaland as the first Native American Secretary of the Interior, a monumental appointment given this nation’s history with its indigenous people.

But with a global pandemic as a backdrop, surely, he would be disappointed to see violence in the streets and rage, fear and bitter division among citizens; it’s almost as if time has stood still.

Dr. King wrote in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in 1963, “Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively.”

I re-read that letter this summer, in the wake of the tragic death of George Floyd.

Dr. King had been arrested for protesting racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. When a group of local clergymen criticized his work and his methods in a local newspaper, Dr. King responded to them by writing his now famous open letter.

Fifty-eight years later, we can still find wisdom in that jailhouse letter. There were many important messages in it, including that as Americans, we must find a way to unify because we are all interconnected, every state and every community. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly…” he said.

As a nation, we must focus on healing and finding a common path if we are to overcome the many challenges facing us today, not the least of which is a global pandemic. In my mind, that path rests on a simple idea: equality of opportunity. Everyone, no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, economic status, or politics, deserves the opportunity to succeed.

Dr. King put it most eloquently when he ended his letter by hoping “…the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”

Happy birthday, Dr. King.