Assessing Progress, Such As It Is

NOW THAT WE'VE HAD SEVERAL DAYS to sober up from the big MLK holiday blowout, we can reflect back in wonder and amazement. The great state of Arkansas, much to its credit, no longer celebrates MLK day on the same day that it celebrates Robert E. Lee day. Lee, gone but not forgotten, has been reassigned to a date unknown at publication time. Both men fought bravely for their beliefs. To date, Lee still holds a slim lead, but King is gaining momentum, despite some recent setbacks. Shortly after King was killed, near Arkansas, Arkansas governor Winthrop Rockefeller, a carpetbagger, took a few minutes away from his investments to stand for a quick photo op with several civil rights leaders, much to his credit. A Rockefeller's time is valuable. Fifty years later, folks like the Rockefellers have a far easier time getting elected than African-Americans, who are largely absent, underfunded, unelected. Psychological research, redundantly verified, reveals that everyone is a racist, if only by virtue of acceding to the dubious concept of "race" as a discrete category. King was born on January 16, but this year the fifteenth was close enough, it falling on a Monday, a making for a nice weekend. To acknowledge birthdays accurately inconveniences us by interfering with three day weekends, so, we make do. On two entirely separate occasions, a future president, whose name you might recognize, was sued by the Department of Justice for failing to allow African-Americans, who in those days were black, to live in his and his father's rental units. Their applications were stylishly adorned with the letter "C", which stood for "colored", not "civil rights". On both occasions, Trump and dad promised to become less racially insensitive, more color blind, and to never, ever make the same mistake more than twice. They may have broken their promise. Two seldom mentioned facts about King are that he was named after the founder of the protestant faith, and that he was a socialist, especially towards the end, when he realized that poverty, not pigmentation bias, is the greater enemy of equality. Conservative capitalistic commentator Sean Hannity fell all over himself effusively praising the "I have a dream" speech as the greatest oration in human history. It wasn't, but to say so suits Hannity's purpose: conservative are not racists, liberals are. Hannity salvaged his true identity by proclaiming that the president's list of shithole countries really do deserve to be on his list. Luther's reformation began quickly; King's has not, but there remains hope. Meanwhile, with regard to Trump and Hannity: you go boy.