Martin Luther King's words and example are still beacon for country today | Guestview

Many people no doubt feel a need to look for inspiration in this new year of 2024, a year sure to bring great challenges, perhaps even greater than those of recent years past.

By circumstance, a holiday family visit to Washington, D.C. helped provide this “non-party affiliate” with hopeful perspective, with a New Year’s Day walk along the National Mall and a visit to the Martin Luther King memorial.

Wandering along the Memorial’s wall of inscriptions of notable MLK statements, I was struck as always by Dr. King’s commitment to making the U.S. a better country, one truly aligned with its Constitutional principles. His were incredibly difficult times, with the civil rights struggle against a backdrop of political strife generated by the Vietnam War. Yet his efforts reflected the dignity and common purpose that is so clearly missing in today’s America.

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But where is America today? Each of the past several years has brought its own challenges and threats to achieving full equality − materially, socially and politically − for all of our fellow citizens. Ten years ago, we saw the Supreme Court walk back protections for minority voters in states covered by the Voting Rights Act. Seven years ago, we saw a torchlit march and racist chants in Charlottesville and the violence accompanying the hatred shown that day. And today we see ongoing open efforts by forces within the Republican Party – including here in Florida − to further restrict African American voting and political representation.

On Jan. 6, 2021, we saw the Confederate flag within the U.S. Capitol for the first time and a concerted effort since by the rioters and their political supporters, including our own local Congressman, to distort the violent Jan. 6 assault on our national electoral process as nothing more than a tourist event. Just last month a major Republican presidential candidate failed to cite slavery as the reason the seceding states took the country into a bloody Civil War, yet another example of post-Jim Crow rewriting of history. Ours has become a manipulative post-truth world where up is down and down is up and character and truth are of little consequence for some political leaders.

But we should not despair. Although the America of 2024 faces a crossroads between societal peace or growing instability and perhaps even political violence at the hands of a misguided few, Dr. King’s pronouncements can help guide us back to the path of common purpose.

Dr. King’s  “I have a dream speech” of August 1963 set the highest of standards for future generations, but his many other insightful statements also serve us well today.

For example, Dr. King’s oft quoted statement “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” highlights our country’s commitment to the rule of law and Constitution at a time when political partisans are trying to deny the proven facts of the events leading up to and surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to avoid accountability.

There was progress in the final three decades of the 20^th century and into this century, but new obstacles and incidents of violence continue to undercut what seemed to be the march of history to a more just America.

Here again, the words of Dr. King point us to the right way: “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality, this is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”  This is a forceful reminder that the Big Lie of 2020 election fraud cannot − and will not − prevail no matter the cacophony of Truth Social blasts and the efforts of leading Republican politicians to sustain the lie for electoral advantage.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy” is the statement by Dr. King that perhaps seems most apt for today’s moment, when people of principle need to step forward and stand strong in defense of the rule of law and justice. This a clear call for all Americans to speak out firmly for truth in the face of the unrelenting efforts of the former president and his acolytes to undermine our electoral process and democratic institutions.

So here we are in 2024’s early days, with some hope that these disturbing trends will founder against unbending truth and that men and women of courage and morality will speak out forcefully and sincerely to restore our badly needed national consensus in support of broad political participation and shared democratic values.

Dr. King’s inspiring words and actions should be embraced by all Americans, even more so this year.

Mike Mozur is a retired U.S. State Department Senior Foreign Service officer and environmental executive who now lives in the Pensacola area.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Martin Luther King Jr. words still beacon for country Guestview