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Health & Fitness

The View From Over Here

Arrival of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial alongside those of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Jefferson provides a historic opportunity for President Obama to address crisis of working Americans.

Hurricane Irene’s visit to our region resulted in the postponing of an event of national importance just down the road from Reston. President Barack Obama was scheduled to have formally dedicated an impressive monument to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at a most appropriate site, between memorials to Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Jefferson.

While the formal dedication ceremony is being postponed, the memorial itself is now open for all of us to share.

As is often the case with major new memorials, there is some carping about this one.  Why is it only three stories high?  The color of the stone is too pale—not dark enough!  And, of course, one local columnist complained that it was sculpted not by an African-American, but by a Chinese artist.

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I suspect that no matter what the final product was or who crafted it, there would be differences of opinion.  This admirer of Dr. King thinks it portrays him the way I remember him, the “Stone of Hope” emerging from “the Mountain of Despair” and is something I believe we can be proud of.  I am also impressed by the fact that Dr. King’s family and those closest to him strongly approve of it.

The opening of this memorial to a champion of equal rights and nonviolent action to achieve that goal could itself be a special moment in our history.  We are at a low point in America, paralleling the days of the Vietnam war in Dr. King’s time in some ways.  And I am not referring to the sad political games the Tea Party Republicans have enticed our President into playing over manageable issues like a transitory federal deficit.

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 I refer to the desperate straits of a majority of working Americans. Nationally, ee have over nine percent of our people unemployed, another seven percent underemployed and vast numbers of workers who’ve seen their wages decline while their health plans and other benefits are stolen from them by the greedy super-rich squeezing the bejesus out of the rest of us.

In the weeks ahead, Barack Obama, our first African-American president, will preside over the formal ceremonies dedicating the memorial to Dr. King.  Imagine Dr. King looking down with pride at this sight and perhaps thinking that a bit of his “I have a dream” speech has indeed come to pass.  The introduction of the memorial to Dr. King next to those of other great Americans provides an historic opportunity for Obama. 

The question is can President Obama rise to the challenge and demonstrate the kind of inspired leadership that Dr. King gave just a few steps from this very memorial on another occasion when our people needed it most—and as they do again today? 

Like Dr. King, Mr. Obama is capable of great eloquence, but lately he has been noticeably lacking both a plan and the courage to stand up for working Americans and take us forward as a nation.

 The arrival of Dr. King’s memorial in Washington coincides closely with the national jobs initiative pronouncement Obama has promised.  Welcoming Dr. King’s memorial is an ideal moment for him to deliver a clear, doldrums-shattering proposal that will lead both to jobs and a more equitable basis as the path forward for the American economy and the working millions who make it go - not the plutocrats sapping the energy and lifeblood out of our very national being.

Mr. President, it is time to step up and provide more than words.  This is the time to make Dr. King and the rest of us proud.

 

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