MLK, and the Storming of the United States Capitol

Wednesday, January 20th, 2021, will be a tense moment for the United States. What should we expect? Will it be remembered as a day of new beginnings, or one of lingering strife and controversy that re-erupts into what happened last week on the National Mall, and then on to the US Capitol?

On August 28th, 1963, more than 200,000 people converged on the National Mall to hear, among others, John Lewis and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches. MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech of that day was a masterpiece of a call for action and change. It was one of the highlights of a day that began with a river of people arriving in our nation’s capital and carrying a message of hope to our nation.

Yet on January 6th, 2021, over 10,000 people arrived in the same place to hear a different message. And what a way to begin 2021. Last week’s storming of the US Capitol was hopefully the low point in what has been a terrible time for a lot of people.

Much of this has been fueled by our collective isolation — spending time by ourselves in our homes while the pandemic burns through more and more people every day. Along the way, our collective patience and strength has clearly declined. Many of us are more alone than we’ve ever been. And many of us are angry, and scared.

Unfortunately, we’ve turned to media, whether news or social, to feel a sense of purpose and meaning. And that iPhone we obsessively stare at has been either a mirror or a window. Seeing and thinking and…