Martin Luther King---40 Years Later

40 years ago today Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. I remember it quite well. I was 13 years old and in the 7th grade. One of the Presidential candidates stood out and worked diligently as a healing agent that day and the days to come. He, unfortunately, would be assassinated two months later. 1968 was not a very good year.

We have learned a great deal over the years.

We learned that J. Edgar Hoover loathed King and was attempting to destroy the civil rights leader.

We have learned that King was a rather imperfect man who struggled with his own personal life in the midst of his public life.

We have learned that he was incredibly sincere, however, about his desire for justice and that the justice he sought was not just racial, but across the boards social justice. He believed that the great enemy of any society was poverty and at the core of so much of what he believed in was fighting poverty.

We have learned that, for him, his faith called him, even demanded him, to follow a non-violent approach. Not everyone did, but King's influence called for a peaceful approach as opposed to a violent approach.

Here we are 40 years later and it always does cause one to take pause.

I heard a news commentator report making an observation that the candidacy of Barack Obama would not be happening if it had not been for Martin Luther King. Perhaps. It is difficult to say. It is impossible to truly know what would have taken place in that 40 year period of time had it not been for Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is, of course, the great question as to what would have taken place had Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. not been assassinated at the age of 39. What kind of influence would have have been had he survived?

Looking over that time period there are, at least to me, some things that have changed dramatically.

First, racially, I do sincerely believe, we are in a better place than we were 40 years ago. Barack Obama is running for the Presidency and has a significant chance to win the nomination of the Democratic Party. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, have both served as the Secretary of State. A year ago Oprah Winfrey did a 'surprise' special in a town on rural Louisiana, a mostly white town, and the people were in the streets jumping up and down with great joy and enthusiasm that Oprah had come to their community. I do know that these events would not have taken place 40 years ago.

Secondly, I still think that we have a major hate problem in this country. I find myself deeply offended that people use the Bible to justify hate conveniently overlooking the nuances of ancient vrs. modern languages. God is not a God of hate----in fact quite the opposite. King did not promote hate, he promoted love of brothers and sisters of all people. He actually did preach the Gospel in that regard. Sadly, it seems to me that hatred is too often promoted.

Thirdly, I think it would be naive, painfully naive, to say that race is still not an issue in American life. One of the things that seemed to anger many people about the comments of Dr. Jeremiah Wright was that they were angry that he was still angry. They couldn't grasp why he was still angry. Some of that anger is perceived as a generational issue and perhaps that is somewhat accurate. There are still issues of race, however.

We've watched many political leaders go down in flames these days. Eliot Spitzer, Larry Craig, David Vitter. The news stories and analysis of these individuals did not include any racial or ethnic commentary. When Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick got in trouble, suddenly racial slurs and rap labels began to appear. He was the Black Mayor of Detroit instead of just the Mayor of Detroit. Race is still an issue.

Hardly a news story about Barack Obama goes by without someone reminding us that he is an African American candidate. He is an African American candidate, but I wonder when he will just be a candidate. Race is still an issue.

I think that in the 40 years we have lived through since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, we have grown a good bit and improved a good bit in terms of race. We are still, however, nowhere near the promised land he envisioned.