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Dear Editor:
Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday reminded me of a man standing on the ledge of a tall bridge contemplating a fateful jump into the river below when a passerby runs up to stop him.
“Wait!” shouts the passerby. “Don’t jump. Let’s talk.” The two men walk earnestly discussing the world’s condition and reasons for hope. When they return to the bridge an hour later, they both jumped.
A dark joke perhaps, but a common view today. A friend, recently referring to King’s “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it tends toward justice” quote, said he sadly no longer agrees with that statement. Coming from my usually more optimistic friend, his remark surprised me.
We had been talking about the impeachment hearings, the “rule of law” debate, and general hostility between almost any two dissenting sides in society. Today it seems that nobody can accept even slight tweaking of their opinion – let alone another perspective.
Then I remembered that since Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, America elected a black man president – twice; our current Congress is the most racially and diverse in history; and that despite the contentious 2016 presidential election, America finally acknowledged that a woman deserved at least a shot at being president, Electoral College notwithstanding.
My friend’s pessimism is well-founded, but it sounds like someone is still looking for King’s “Promised Land.” We’re just not there yet.
Jim Newton
Itasca, Ill.