Dr. King's Birthday

On this, the anniversary the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth, I have a couple of obviously cynical observations.

Although the growth of the black middle and upper classes has been impressive since Dr. King was shot and killed in 1968, many blacks still live in poverty, blacks still have higher murder and drug use rates then whites, and blacks have their liberties threatened in the most subtle of ways (remember Election Day 2000 in Florida?).

Local news reporters will probably fill airtime with the many ways in which Dr. King's dream has been achieved, but they'll gloss over his anti-corporate and anti-capitalist comments, as well as his insistence that the West has long profited off the backs of the Third World's people (which it has).

It is nothing short of high irony that New Hampshire took forever and a day to recognize Dr. King's birthday as a holiday, yet the state's motto is "Live Free Or Die."

As long as Trent Lott still represents Mississippi - a state whose population is 35 percent black - in the Senate, it will be a long time before the idea of one man, one vote finally means something in this country (should I bring up Florida again?). Keep your eyes on the prize, indeed.