blinded

  Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. day and inauguration day. I have heard some complaints about Trump being inaugurated on this holiday. The thing is, it isn't optional, the constitution mandates when that event takes place. Reference the 20th amendment. So, there is no discussion required. We are just obeying the law of the land, no disrespect to Dr. King. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were inaugurated on Martin Luther King day. The next time this will occur is 2053. Inauguration day can not take place on a Sunday. If the twentieth is a Sunday inauguration takes place on Monday the 21st. There is also the additional situation where the flag is at half staff in memory of Jimmy Carter. It isn't the first time this situation has arisen. The flags were at half staff for Truman when Nixon was inaugurated. They remained that way for the entire ceremony. This isn't addressed in the constitution but is a matter of tradition. They will be raised again on Jan 28th ending the mourning period for President Carter.

 It has been 57 years since the assassination of Martin Luther King. Jr. I was fifteen years old when that happened. I remember hearing about that on the evening news. Riots followed with the national guard being called in to restore order in several cities. I admit to not being very socially and politically aware of just what all that meant. Having been born and raised in the north, living in a small rural community, I was really quite unaware of just how much prejudice existed in other areas of the country. I recall my father showing me some snapshots he had taken while in Florida. In these photos were signs saying "colored" and "white" on water fountains and restrooms. My father couldn't believe it. It's true he was no activist, no freedom fighter for social justice and equity, but he let me know just how wrong all that "shit" was. Yes, that is how he thought about that. 

  And here we are fifty seven years later still battling prejudice and injustice. Today the division stems more along political lines than racial ones. That isn't to say that prejudice has been erased, we still have a long way to go, but progress has been made. Dr. King had a huge role in that progress. But today the prejudice exists more on ideology than any theological/moral basis. It isn't black and white, it is right and left.  “Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. " Do you know who said that? It was King. Today we keep hearing, trust the science. Science without the control of wisdom is a very dangerous thing. Pandemics are created in such fashion. "Science without philosophy is blind." That is the "prejudice" we all face today in America. We are becoming blind; exchanging wisdom for power. Wisdom is believing in what you can't understand.