I am feeling ornery. Just a warning. I mean, it's not like you all didn't know it was coming this week. Friday we watch the first black president hand the keys over to a man who has spent the past weekend fighting with civil rights hero John Lewis saying he is all talk and no action. Of course I am feeling ornery.
I am tired of watching ignorant people revel in their ignorance. Today especially I am tired of watching people trot out their version of Dr. King and find his most polished and innocuous quotes and posting them as memes with a subtle (sometimes) to brash (usually) message of "See? This is how you should act." But when pointed out that there is more to him than a few paragraphs of feel good message they shut down or try to tell you what Dr. King would feel/say/be. Who are you again to say what he would or would not do?
Should there be a rule someplace that says white people especially cannot use Dr. King as some sort of tool to tell black people how to act? It seems like there should be some sort of common decency rule there. But what do I know? I think the man was a badass, not a marshmallow. I think he made people extremely uncomfortable in his day. He was hated by "polite society" who really thought people should just behave differently, quieter, more accepting. And then eventually they killed him. Polite society.
Like Medgar Evers before him. Whose assassin was let off the hook for decades because an all white jury wouldn't convict him. And Jimmie Lee Jackson whose death inspired the marches in Selma where John Lewis was beaten and had his skull fractured, seems like action more than just talk, talk, talk...but what do I know?
So today I am especially ornery.
But I don't expect it to get better this week.
Just be ready.
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