…is for remembering.

Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. — MLK Jr.

I have long been a fan of Martin Luther King Jr. and I loved his “I have a dream” speech… and have watched it dozens and dozens of times. It provides the most “cherry picked” quotes by the GOP and I am sure that you will hear their favored line quoted loud and long today. I am pretty sure that Dr. King would point out their lack of understanding… because he had a quote for that as well:

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

This weekend I have spent time pondering what Dr. King would think of the status of the world today and I think he might agree that the more things change, the more they stay the same. We might not have lynchings today but what we have might be even worse…police killings (in a sickening number… The WaPo has been tracking police shootings since 2015. I am gifting this link to the data so you can all look at it, if you’d like – I know, it’s a lot for a Monday morning.)

One person’s name was glaringly absent from the 40 persons who have been killed by police in January… yes, that is in the 15 days of this month… shocking, I know. However, this data does not contain the name of the young teacher and father who flagged down police for help… Keenan Anderson. Why not? Well… the police did not shoot him, they tazed him to death.

This weekend, I have been thinking much about Mr. Anderson, Dr. King, and the 8,124 people who have been killed by the police since 2015 and it all feels like the most overwhelming mountain of despair…

But what about that stone of hope?

I believe, perhaps as Dr. King did… that all of us are those stones of hope….

A daunting task? Yes, absolutely. But together… all those stones of hope eventually make a mountain of hope, no?

And, in case you need a starting point, a bit of guidance… Mr. Anderson’s cousin has written an excellent book to get you on your way!

I will see you all back here on Wednesday.

 

 

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