Yesterday, hundreds of people got together in south Mississippi to remember the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and his message of equality. An event organizer was quoted as saying:

“Even though we’re doing better now than we were in the sixties, there are still some things we need to be concerned about and trying to push in terms of getting equal rights for everybody. The Latinos are moving in now, and they need someone to bat for them,” says James Crowell, the Celebration Chairman.

It’s refreshing to hear that when speaking about King’s vision, people are willing to apply it to present-day discrimination, particularly as it relates to the plight of Latino immigrants in this country.

Indeed, King’s widow, Coretta, saw her husband’s vision as going beyond the lines of race to apply themselves to all victims of discrimination:

“I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people…. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.”

While the quote from that event chairman may be true — we are better off than we were in the 60s — I don’t know how much better. Katrina forced white America to deal with the fact that many people of color — in the South and beyond — still deal with the same problems their forefathers did as a result of racism: poverty, despair and lack of protection by their government. Some might argue that the only thing that has changed for many of these people is that hate became indifference and oblivion. What’s worse?

Are we better off? Maybe. But racism and discrimination is alive and well in America. It’s sad to me that many people who see MLK as a hero are also fiercely anti-immigrant and homophobic (read an amazing essay on this topic). His message, however, is clear and alive and can’t be twisted to suit anyone’s agenda.

Yes, Martin Luther King is as relevant as ever. As we face as a nation the prospect of who knows how many years of a senseless war, we can look to Dr. King for sage words on the senseless war he witnessed during his time:

This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.

Dr. King said these words almost 40 years ago, yet it’s as if they could be applied exactly to our current situation. It’s pretty much the same for every one of his quotes. Does that mean we’ve learned nothing?

Via / WLOX-TV