It's a weird MLK Day

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 I wasn't planning on writing anything today. Then my kids reminded me it was MLK day. And I just felt rage. 

I've tried cracking open Strength To Love four times to day. And I'm going to find some peace after I get some thoughts out and spend some time with it.

I'm beyond frustrated that some of the first executive orders are to attempt to end birthright citizenship and change the name of Denali back to Mt Mckinley.  One of these will have little to no policy changes the other could change the fabric of America. 

Let's talk about the first for the second. For decades, native tribes of Alaska petitioned to change the name of their sacred mountain from the name of a President to one reflective of the heritage of the place. To strip that through executive order is just vindictive. It serves no purpose other than to signal who is in and who is out. That's all. 

Combine that with massive changes to immigration. Including a clampdown on legal immigration. And an attempt to overwrite an amendment to the constitution by executive order is just cruel. It changes the fabric of how America functions and what we think it stands for. 

I'm enraged. More than I thought I would. So I'm working through it in my words. And I'm turning to writers that have influenced me for so long. 

There is becoming a growing rift between haves and have nots. That may be the most enraging thing for me. People in power wielding it to impress or oppress others. 

I'm stuck on this though. I don't like being angry anymore. I don't like where it takes me. 

So I read. 

"Let no man pull you so low you hate him. Always avoid violence. If you sow seeds of violence in your struggle, unborn generations will reap the whirlwind of social disintegration. 

In your struggle for justice, let your oppressor know that you have neither a desire to defeat him nor a desire to get even with him for injustices that he has heaped up on you." 

Martin Luther King Jr had it right. And is an interesting and calming presence right now. He desired a lack of segregation. He desired social equity and the elimination of poverty. He saw the potential of what we could become. 

We've made so much progress. We truly have. But we have so much work to do. We'll backslide at times. We are now at a place where we have to look at what it means for people in the US to be equal. What we stand for. What we want for us. 

It's going to take a huge amount of work to frame this in way I'm fighting for something. It's going to take so much effort to not give in to anger. 



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