“We’re not alone. Good people will fight if we lead them. What our mothers and father fought for, we will not let die. Not today.”
No, that is not Dr. King. That is Poe Dameron, rebel commander, speaking in “Rise of Skywalker” (sorry for the spoiler).
Before you start rolling your eyes, stay with me.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that we’re at a crossroads. Think about what our mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, friends and families fought for over the span of a single generation. At times some of those efforts were flawed, but they were done with the best intentions, because the results were focused on taking us a few steps closer to the “Beloved Community” that Dr. King gave his life for.
Just think, within the span of Rosa refusing to move and the final culmination of Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” in 1980 we saw:
–A reduction (I won’t say the end) of overt racism,
–A growth in opportunities for communities that we’re once on the outside looking in,
–A growing acceptance of couples who are in loving, committed relationships, whose only sin was that they were “different,”
–So many changes over such a short time that a few of us even allowed ourselves to believe that we were being judge on the content of our character.
Sadly, the erosion of those victories started not long after the battles were won, and incredibly over the last 4 years, we’ve seen far too many people proudly walking in lockstep (or possibly goose step) back to the days of “separate but equal.” They wouldn’t call it that, they prefer terms like “traditional values,” like racism, sexism, and intolerance are proud traditions that must be preserved at all costs.
For those who haven’t seen Rise of Skywalker just yet, Poe Dameron gives his speech before the start of the final battle against the minions of the First Order—and when those around him were starting to believe that no one was ready to fight with them, to fight to help restore what had been lost.
Today, to those who are weary because we have been fighting and seemingly losing so much over the last four years, and you’re starting to believe that no one is ready to fight Today, to those who are weary because we have been fighting and seemingly losing so much over the last four years, and you’re starting to believe that no one is ready to fight with you, I want to remind you—and all of us— that we are not alone. We are not alone and we will not let what Dr. King and so many others whose names
It’s not going to be easy, and Dr. King reminded us that it was never going to be easy, but he also never let us forget that in the end you can never lose hope, because he believed until his dying day that “unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”
“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.”
–Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Until Next Time…
Thoughts From A Short Round Black Man 