The fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? is important reading after a presidential election marred by political violence, scandalous published campaign emails, allegations of sexual scandal that rocked both political parties and both presidential candidates, and cringing campaign statements by both presidential candidates that quickly produced painful apologies.
For my former boss Secretary Hillary Clinton the political damage began in early 2015 when former First Lady Nancy Reagan died in California. Attending Reagan’s funeral, Clinton told MSNBC, “It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/AIDS back in the 1980s. And because of both President and Mrs. Reagan – in particular, Mrs. Reagan – we started a national conversation, when before nobody would talk about it. Nobody wanted anything to do with it.”
Clinton later admitted she “misspoke” on the Reagan’s HIV/AIDS activism in the 1980s. This statement came in response to LGBT community outrage at the comment. Gay City News said, “Clinton was insufficiently focused” when she “misspoke.” The same could be said of her failed presidential campaign when she described Trump supporters as “deplorables” to the applause of an LGBT audience.
To an audience of amateur journalists in the final months of her campaign, Ms. Clinton said she had “short circuited” her answers to the FBI’s investigation into her use of an unsecured private email server for classified State Department communications. It was further reminder Ms. Clinton was “over loaded,” so to speak, due to her mistake to maintain an unauthorized email system outside official government channels.
The totality of Ms. Clinton’s mistakes, regrets, apologies created chaos rather than community and resulted in her humiliating election loss. Since Donald Trump’s election has been marred with continued chaos of controversy over popular versus electoral vote, a failed recount effort, fake news, fake “intelligence,” and government accusations Russian President Vladimir Putin masterminded Trump’s election. President Obama even expelled Russian diplomats and imposed more sanctions before receiving a formal report claiming Russian involvement in the election.
The social and political division that has characterized the Obama administration has continued since the end of the presidential election and indications are it will continue. Unprecedented protests are scheduled in Washington around the inauguration of President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
Dr. King wrote “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965’s Voting Rights Act. Considerable political resistance to those historic civil rights bills remained. Racist Democratic Gove. George C. Wallace still ruled Alabama and refused to voluntarily comply with civil rights legislation.
The Vietnam war caused widespread dissent across the country and Dr. King was a strong advocate for ending the war. Peaceful protests, which strengthened community, gave way to violent protests which created division and chaos in city after city.
In 2016 voters spoke and we have a new administration with a clear economic agenda to end the economic inequality of part-time temporary “gig” jobs with no worker benefits. New community will grow with work. Positively, political gridlock is over. Negatively, unity government may not immediately translate to real unity.
Dr. King’s civil rights work brought communities together and helped heal the pain of years of racial segregation, division and poverty. It was difficult work for which he paid the ultimate price in Memphis April 4, 1968.
On Dr. King’s Holiday, it is the legacy of community we celebrate. Community in struggle. Community in pain. Community in hope of better days. It is work to build, or re-build, community. Let the work begin.
Jim Patterson is a Washington DC-based writer and speaker. His late father served with the Alabama National Guard in the 1960s and Patterson appears as a reporter in the 2015 Academy Award-winning film “Selma.”
