Yes. That’s Dr. King in the room as President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

I was 2 days from my 4th birthday & I knew who Dr. King was.

I knew who he was in 1965 when devastating riots broke out in Watts just a few miles from my home in Los Angeles.

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I knew who he was when I was 7 & efforts to integrate my school with more spanish speaking students came to fruition.

Recuerdo estar sentado con una estudiante de español llamada Betty mientras aprendíamos los nombres de manzana, naranja, pera y uva en los idiomas de cada uno.

I remember a few months later weeping with my friend on the April day in 1968 when news of Dr. King’s assassination reached us. I thought how wrong it was that such a great man was lost to the world so soon & that he left the world at the hands of a bad man who saw only a target.

My Spanish is still not very good, but the ability to speak only simple words in another language has opened doors that no amount of English vocabulary could.

Because the is not just in knowing the words, but wanting to know them in order to bridge a gap of understanding.

Without Dr. King, my friend Betty of 53 years would never have become my chosen sister. It’s quite possible that I would not have been given the grace to see that our differences are beautiful, interesting and integral to a life experience that knows exclusivity is a boundary...

When what is really needed is a bridge.

And so I hold in my heart the hope that it does not take us another 56 years to fulfill the promise of the Civil Rights Act or the dream of Dr. King.

Because people, it is past time to lay down this monstrous hate & inequity.

It is time to claim our humanity. We cannot face the challenges of rebuilding our nation & restoring our earth in a land so divided.

We must fight tooth and nail against the racism that our president has normalized & encouraged to such an extent that no non-white human is safe.

It goes beyond “see something, say something.” It means, of course, that we do our duty as voters and elect people who look like America in all its diversity.

It also means that we do not allow even the most subtle smirk or slight of racism to go unchallenged.

Because this country & her people will never be great if we are standing on the necks of our African-American and minority brethren to achieve it.

In the words of Dr. King - “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

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