On King Day, a Needed National Moment to Prepare, Protect and Preserve
Just like the weather spread across much of the U.S., the national mood is frigid, icy and nastily uncertain. This is not a day of celebration - but, we do have a lot to reflect on ... and plan for
Ellison | Publisher’s Riff
Just like the weather spread across much of the United States on this day, the national mood is frigid, icy and nastily uncertain. Try as hard as we'd like, it's not appropriate to make this a day of celebration. Instead, it’s a day of reflection on the contributions and sacrifices of Martin Luther King, Jr. We know: some tire of the perception that the day has devolved into contrived commercialism (although, why complain about that when it is, after all, a national holiday?) Others are worn out by the constant acronymization of it ("MLK Day" versus "King Day" versus the wholesome "Martin Luther King, Jr. Day"). And, do we, ever stop stumbling through this exercise of who knows more King quotes than the other?
What is important, as we draw to a close on a day like this, is understanding that King's legacy was very much cemented in the urgency of now. It's fitting how his national holiday is the first major one - after New Year's Day - that is at the top of every year. If we're truly serious about absorbing lessons from what he stood for then we'll of course use today as a national conversation on preparation, protection and preservation. How do we prepare ourselves for, surely, turbulent days and months ahead as we're faced with critical elections that will determine whether or not all that King stressed, sweat and died for - along with those beside him, those before him and those filling his big shoes now - unravels overnight?
Something to think about since the political right has made it abundantly clear that they do intend to dismantle all civil rights progress made over the last 60 years - and, if we think more deeply about it, dismantle the planet since diminished equity and an expanded discrimination state will accelerate climate crisis. So, then, how do we protect all of that since it's all so fragile and we're still in the building stages before reaching full potential and unencumbered equity? Rather than find ourselves strapped down in constant lament over how bad it is, better energy is put into strategy and figuring out how to outmaneuver those forces looking to reverse that progress. That will require more than just noise on social media and disjointed protest that ends up more like paint thrown on a wall. That will require, right now and fast, as much full civic education, civic engagement and maximum voter mobilization as possible. Everyone participating must understand the stakes with respect to their issue.
If maximum voter mobilization succeeds at pulling off big wins at the ballot box, which translates into maintaining not only the White House, but flipping seats in legislatures, what then? We'll then need to have much more serious talks about preservation. That we've arrived at this point, this paradoxical universe of a King national holiday at a time when his work is as fragile as it's ever been, is a case study in how we all dropped the ball. We can't let that happen again. Perhaps this year we do learn, and better guardrails are erected as a result.
CHARLES D. ELLISON is Publisher of theBEnote. He is also Principal of B|E Strategy.