Dream Weaver

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of my handful of true heroes.  Today, I have the day off of work, which I profoundly need.  I'm under so much pressure and have a lot of upsetting things going on with my job.  So this is a welcome day off.  But it is so much more.  Today is a day to stop, in my case, all the "adulting" (checking my bank balance on line, paying bills, doing laundry, cleaning the cat box--already did that one but anyway, etc.) I do need to do also today, take a pause, and reflect on the importance of Dr. King's actions and legacy.

In 2024, we have a Governor of Texas lamenting that it is too bad he can't just shoot people attempting to cross the border.  You have the Republican frontrunner for President of the United States running ads appealing to the xenophobic (his base) demographic of voters, referring to "illegals".  Not "illegal immigrants", no:  that would make them human beings.  Just "illegals".  This is a blatant (and sadly, effective) attempt at othering:  at reducing human beings in a given group other than your own to a sub-human status.  This has been done successfully throughout history by, for example, Hitler and the Nazis in the Holocaust, by America throughout slavery, and by 45 during his previous administration to, among others, all immigrants.  This man and his administration kidnapped babies at the border, did not keep records of who they belong with, put them on the floor in literal cages, with mylar "blankets", and left them alone (babies, alone) in those concentration camps (and yes, they were concentration camps--that is not an exaggeration, as I do not throw that term around carelessly or lightly, only when it is accurate) for YEARS in some cases.  45 kidnapped, orphaned, neglected, tortured and traumatized these babies and children, as President of the United States of America, so in all of our names.

45 now campaigns on the same successful, xenophobic, "othering" platform/fuel that he used to win in 2016.  In 2016 he talked openly in his primary campaign--in fact, he "vowed" to do this--about "banning all Muslims from entering America".  That, my friends--that right there--was vowing to violate the constitution.  I posted at the time, in 2015 or 2016, whenever he said that, that the Republican Party should disqualify him as a candidate in their primary field because he was openly vowing to violate the constitution that he would be taking an oath to uphold if elected POTUS.  I have since realized (in fairness to the disgusting repug party) that I'm not sure a political party can disqualify someone from running on their primary ticket, once they are in the race, but anyway:  I clearly saw back then what a threat Trump was to everything America stands for at its best, every ideal of America I was raised to love and aspire to make more and more real instead of ideal, and to our constitution itself.  And, as we saw play out during the 45 era and now beyond, 45 is indeed a fascist, and a treasonous traitor.  And scarier than that:  there are a significant number of Americans who are all for that, in a big way.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an eloquent, inspiring, courageous person who not only gave the most amazing speeches I've personally ever heard (I was just a baby and a tot when he gave them, but I have listened to them many times since and, *every time*, I cry, during "I Have a Dream" in particular), but who put his life on the line time and time again to advance civil rights for African-American people in this country, where they have been so terribly oppressed (even to the point of being brought here--kidnapped and brought here--against their will and kept as slaves, as we all know) throughout American history.  This alone makes him heroic.  But who he was, what he did, and what he stood for, was so much more and bigger than even that, which was so big and awesome in itself.

Martin Luther King believed in the principle of creative, non-violent resistance.  He believed in the POWER of it.  He believed in the righteousness of it.  He got me to believe in it.  He was inspired by Gandhi.  He knew it worked and it is, like I said, a righteous path.  And honestly as I write this, I find myself in tears because (perhaps like Dr. King himself in the last few years of his life, from some things I have heard yet never wanted to think/believe were true), I no longer think creative, non-violent resistance is *always* the path.  But I DO still think and feel and passionately believe is it *always* what we need to think of *first*, and try whenever it is even at all possible.  It's the go-to.  And he taught me that.  His words rang out (they did that--they positively rang, like inspiring music) when I was just a baby/tot, from my parents' radio or television.  They absorbed into my very DNA.  And I was raised to believe in bringing about social change via the path of love, of creative, non-violent resistance.

I've been in so many protests and marches and rallies.  I've been teargassed.  I've had a gun brandished and pointed at me/us.  And some of the social change I've engaged in creative non-violent resistance to bring about has happened.  Quite a bit has not.  Quite a bit has stayed the same or worsened.  Yet I still believe in the power of creative, non-violent resistance.  It is still my go-to.  Even though I'm older and I'm way sadder and I'm utterly dismayed.  Even though things may seem hopeless (as I'm sure they did to Rosa Parks and all those who broke barriers that seemed hopelessly impossible to break), I still believe in TRYING.  Even though I now also know that sometimes the path of utter non-violence not only seems but is impossible.  Even though I feel like that is a betrayal of MLK and Gandhi and Herman Wrice, even to say/write/feel... know that.  Yet even though now I am not the idealist I once was, and it breaks my heart to say that, I still always want to TRY for that.  I still carry the music and the substance of Dr. King's idealism and practical idealism in my heart, soul and imagination.  And there was something else he taught, another part of his idealism besides non-violent resistance, that is a part of me:  we may have differences on the outside but human beings are all the same inside and we all share that common, universal humanity.

It's not okay to shoot immigrants as they try to cross into our country, or to stop people from rendering aid to them as they drown trying to get here.  It's not okay to kidnap babies at the border, keep no records of who they belong to/with, and put them in cages.  It's not okay to take away women's rights, or the right of consenting adults to marry who they love.  We still have have to put in the work to bend the arc toward justice.  And love.  Even in this violent, disheartening world, we can't give up.  We have to keep trying.  When I listen to "I Have a Dream" again today (and I will), it won't be with such a pure, flower child, idealistic heart and soul as I used to come to it with, as I used to hear it with.  Honestly, it will be with a heavy, disillusioned, sad heart.  But I will still listen to it.  And I will still love it.  And I will still know that Dr. King's highest ideals are my highest ideals and the ones I believe lead to a healthy world and what in Judaism is called "tikkun olam" (to mend, heal and repair the world).  I will still know that we have to keep trying.  We have to keep dreaming and *working for the dream* in everything we do.