Misremembering, By Accident or Design?
Many in our Nation will give thought to Martin Luther King Jr today. It is the Federal holiday in his honor. In recognition of this day people will attend parades, others will volunteer in their community, and many will go about this day like any other Federal holiday. It is a pause or disruptment of routine. Employees with children that do not work for the Federal or State government, or employers that recognize this holiday, will need to rearrange schedules for sitters and other childcare. Stores are open as usual, thank goodness, because I need to get dinner groceries this afternoon. Movie theaters will do a brisk business ahead of Oscar night. Over the weekend many, many more peered through the scope of American Sniper than crossed the bridge in Selma. From observing the trailers and reading reviews, both films deal with personal struggle and systemic struggle. I’ll see them both and suppress the notion that I may feel the same way I did after seeing The Hurt Locker. Pause and disruptment.
This morning I read a column on The Nation website, The Misremembering of “I Have a Dream”, that offers another perspective on the words of MLK and gives me both pause and disruptment about the state of our Union. Dissension, not unity, permeates our culture more than anytime that I can remember in my lifetime. Dissension about the common good. Dissension about what were accepted facts a short 20 year ago about science, about economics, about how government is supposed to work for all our citizens. I wonder if the lessons of the last century are misremembered by accident or design?