MLK Day, 2024

If Martin Luther King, Junior, had lived - rather than get mowed down in his early prime, at the age of 39 - he'd be an old man. Ninety-five. Today. 

When anyone dies so young, especially leaders, it's hard not to play "what if?"

What would have happened if MLK had lived? What would he have made of Obama's presidency? Of Clarence Thomas? Of hip-hop? Of rap? Of racial progress, of racial stagnation, of racial setbacks? Of NBA salaries? Of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland? Of Trayvon Martin, the Central Park Five? 

Would his presence have made any difference in any and all of the above?

What would social media have done for him, to him?

Would he and Coretta have stayed together?

What sort of difference would he have made? 

What would he have written? What would he have said? 

Would he have ended up on the faculty of Harvard? Of Howard? 

Would he have been a guest pundit on MSNBC, on CNN? Would the Room Raters have rated his background? 

Would he be a hale and hearty 95, or a little old man suffering with Alzheimer's?

(The other great martyred civil rights leaders of MLK's era - Malcolm X and Medgar Evers - if they had lived, would both turn 99 this year. Malcolm X was assassinated at the age of 39. Medgar Evers, a few weeks short of turning 38. MLK's age, plus or minus, when he was killed.)

All I know is that, with Martin Luther King, Junior's murder, we lost a lot. An awful lot. 

Today, I'll be working in the Resource Center at St. Francis House, and there'll be an awful lot of Black faces among those sitting there waiting to take a shower, looking for a ticket for a clothing appointment, waiting for lunch, watching TV. A disproportionately awful lot of Black faces. 

I sure hope that the arc of the moral universe really does bend toward justice. Seems a long way off just about now.