Our View: If MLK Was Alive…

If Martin Luther King, Jr. was still alive, he would likely be dismayed by the backsliding in civil rights and social justice we’re seeing from the current administration in Washington, D.C. But as stressed at Monday’s MLK Breakfast in Orleans, he would undoubtedly tell us not to lose hope.

 The fear the administration is trying to promote through ICE’s Gestapo-like tactics as well as subtle attempts to erase history, especially of the Civil Rights Movement, is obvious and telling. But as the Rev. Liz Walker said at the breakfast, as frightening as things have become, “you don’t have to feel powerless, because there’s always something love can do.”

 Love, hope and nonviolent protests were the tools that MLK and his compatriots used to draw attention to racial issues and push for the Civil Rights Acts passed by Congress in 1964 and 1968. Today, members of the administration and right-wing influencers blame the Acts for the nation’s troubles and claim they led to discrimination against white people. We’re really living in something akin to the Upside Down in “Stranger Things.” Everything is the same, only darker and more dangerous.

 Racial justice has never been about popularity, said Tara Vargas Wallace, founder of Amplify POC Cape Cod, who received the Racial Justice Advocacy Award at Monday’s breakfast. “It has always been about courage,” she said.

 Monday’s event was one of joy and hope, and yes, courage. As protesters in Minneapolis and elsewhere throughout the country have shown, that’s what it takes to stand up to injustice and the bluster of the cowards who clearly don’t care about anyone else but themselves and their ambitions. “Do not grow weary of doing good,” Walker quoted from the Bible. It may take time, but the arc of history bends toward justice, and its time will come.