Good morning.
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in Whitewater will see cloudy skies and snow showers, with a high of twenty-five. Sunrise is 7:22 AM and sunset 4:47 PM, for 9h 25m 01s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2.1% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}four hundred thirty-first day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
Whitewater’s Library Board is scheduled to meet at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1943, the United States completes construction of the Pentagon. On this day in 1967, the Packers win the first Super Bowl (35-10 over the Chiefs at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum).
Recommended for reading in full —
➤ Lonnie Bruch contends This was Martin Luther King Jr.’s most ambitious dream:
King’s commitment to economic reform is often overshadowed by his broader civil rights work and his assassination. He characterized America’s socioeconomic schism as an “enormous, entrenched evil,” one analogous to “strangulation.”
What King could not know was that this economic divide would long outlive him. Though there has been a decline in the percentage of people trapped in poverty, people of color are still disproportionately affected.
There is something to be gained, then, from revisiting King’s final dream — one that cuts across borders and boundaries to illuminate the cracks in the nation’s veneer of abundant prosperity.
This month, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is exploring King’s final vision in a new exhibition, “City of Hope: Resurrection City and the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.” The exhibition, bringing together rare oral histories, posters and photographs, lays bare the distance traveled, the stories shared and the history made by Americans with seemingly little in common except the dream to overcome poverty.
➤ The Fresno Bee writes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: ‘Let us march on ballot boxes’:
Editor’s note: This year marks the 53rd anniversary of the five-day, 54-mile Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights. This is an excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech at the conclusion of the march. We reprint it in observance of Dr. King’s birthday.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave Negroes some part of their rightful dignity, but without the vote it was dignity without strength.
Once more the method of nonviolent resistance was unsheathed from its scabbard, and once again an entire community was mobilized to confront the adversary. … There never was a moment in American history more honorable and more inspiring than the pilgrimage of clergymen and laymen of every race and faith pouring into Selma to face danger at the side of its embattled Negroes. …
Today I want to tell the city of Selma, today I want to say to the state of Alabama, today I want to say to the people of America and the nations of the world, that we are not about to turn around. We are on the move now.
Yes, we are on the move and no wave of racism can stop us. We are on the move now. The burning of our churches will not deter us. The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us.
We are on the move now. The beating and killing of our clergymen and young people will not divert us.
We are on the move now. The wanton release of their known murderers would not discourage us.
We are on the move now. Like an idea whose time has come, not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. We are moving to the land of freedom.
Let us therefore continue our triumphant march to the realization of the American dream. …
➤ The Washington Post offers Some tweetable quotations from the man we honor:
“We must meet hate with love. We must meet physical force with soul force. There is still a voice crying out through the vista of time, saying: ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.’?”
“God is not interested merely in freeing black men and brown men and yellow men, but God is interested in freeing the whole human race.”
“We must act in such a way as to make possible a coming together of white people and colored people on the basis of a real harmony of interest and understanding. We must seek an integration based on mutual respect.”
“When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love. ”
“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.”
That last one is on the South Wall of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, part of a tribute to a national leader who sought to appeal to the best that is in us. Engraved in stone, maintained by the National Park Service, it is a message of hope that will long outlive the discord and disrespect of these days.
➤ Carol Giacomo contends Dutch Reporters Show How to Keep American Officials Honest:
Last week, Dutch reporters had one question they particularly wanted to press Mr. Hoekstra on: Would he admit that his 2015 claims were false, or could he cite an example of a Dutch politician who was burned in recent year.
Looking like a deer in headlights, the ambassador tried to brush off his interrogators. Maybe Mr. Hoekstra had watched President Trump spew lies and hate without apology for so long that he thought he could get away with it, too. Not in The Hague, apparently. The journalists came back repeatedly — “This is the Netherlands, you have to answer questions,” one said.
They invoked a quote from John Adams, the first American envoy to the Netherlands, about “honest and wise men.” They were probably being ironic.
The ambassador looked uncomfortable, but it was refreshing to see reporters demanding honesty from an official and not letting up in the face of resistance. It would be good to see that more often on this side of the ocean, especially since the confrontation seemed to have had a salutary effect.
➤ Go ahead, Float Along Colombia’s Rainbow River:
The Caño Cristales River is a spectacular, natural wonder located in Meta, Colombia. Every year when the conditions are just right, an endemic aquatic plant species that lives within the riverbed blooms, creating a brilliant show of colors. The river bursts to life with vibrant hues of red, yellow, orange, green and blue, earning the monikers “Liquid Rainbow” and “River of Five Colors” by local residents. Although the phenomenon is short-lived, the ephemeral splendor it brings has some referring to Caño Cristales as the most beautiful river in the world.