Cruelest month for King's brethren overseas

[livetohike]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04112/303746.stm

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

What is the correct sentiment for this empty premise?

Is it, "I wish Dr. King were alive, to say something no one else can say, to understand things no one else can understand, to instruct and persuade with the singular mix of commanding compassion and eloquence that died with him 36 years ago?"

Or is it, "I'm glad Dr. King's not around to see what we've done with his teachings, to be left to decide which is more certain, that we've perverted them or that we've ignored them."

I don't know.

But I've said his name out loud a couple or three times since Sept. 11, most recently in the days when the growing horror that is Iraq first started drawing pained public comparisons to Vietnam. No, it's not Black History Month. It's not Martin Luther King's birthday. Yeah, he died on a warm spring night in April, but that's not what this is about.

This is about things we lack for the challenges of the 21st century: wisdom, judgment, withering and accurate self-appraisal. Maybe it is just April that brings it all hissing to the surface. April is Oklahoma City. April is Columbine. April is Waco. And now April, this April, is the new bloodiest month of Bush War II.

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