On the precipice of a week that will begin by honoring the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and end with the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, it's hard not to wonder what the civil rights leader's thoughts might be on our next president, and what lessons we can take away from that.
Eight years ago, Barack Obama was inaugurated the day after MLK Day as our country's first African-American president. It was certainly not lost on many people that Obama was symbolic of King's famous "dream" for America, when his children would "one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Electing a black man to the White House was surely a sign that we had moved beyond skin color in defining people and were that much closer to being the united nation King envisioned.
And yet, as Obama's term comes to a close, things might be as divisive as they've been in our country since the civil rights era when King came into prominence.
While it would be unfair to blame that entirely on the president-elect, Trump certainly must shoulder some of the blame after a campaign in which he stoked the flames of racist and anti-immigrant sentiment with his incendiary rhetoric, which in turn resulted in support and endorsements from groups like the KKK and other white supremacist and anti-Semitic organizations — support that he didn't immediately condemn, and potentially aided in his ascent to the presidency. Since his election, Trump's nominees such as Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions, among others, have done little to quell the concerns of those who fear what Donald Trump's America might look like.
Even setting aside any racial tensions created by a Trump presidency, as we reflect on King's words that people "be judged … by the content of their character," it's understandable why so much fear and uncertainty surrounds the president-elect. Trump's character certainly showed throughout the campaign, from petulant name-calling of his "enemies" (not opponents, mind you) like "Lyin' Ted," "Little Marco," and "Crooked Hillary," to mocking a disabled reporter, to his disgusting comments about women made to Billy Bush that emerged, to name a few.
What would Dr. King think of all this? We can only surmise, based on his many speeches, that King would encourage Americans not to sink to the same lows as the president-elect and create an even greater divide among Americans. Rather, he would preach love over hate, unity over division.
So, on what would have been his 88th birthday, we offer a few quotes from Dr. King for our president-elect, his supporters and his detractors to ruminate on:
"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."
"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."
Godspeed, President Trump.
