MLK Assasination Day

MLK. It's hard to believe that MLK wouldn't have been distressed by developments in the U. S. since the 1960's. It's hard to tell which is worse. There's the isolation of large segments of the black population in deteriorating ghettos, the explosion of homelessness, the crack cocaine epidemic, and the incarceration of so many young black men. But there's also the fact that so much moderate opinion supports the excesses of American militarism, Wall Street greed, and color-blind racism. King wrote in "Letter From Birmingham Jail" that he was more bothered by white "moderates" than he was by the Bull Connors of the world. He would be just as disappointed today.

Mariah Carey. With the release of the first single from her new album, Mariah Carey now has more no. 1 hits than Elvis Presley. I saw an interview in which Carey, now 38, demurred that she had not had nearly the impact of performers like Presley, the Beatles, or Madonna. That's true, but Mariah Carey also deserves a lot of credit for recovering from her recent breakdown and getting back to the top of her game. It's tough for people to drag themselves out of that kind of chasm and it's good to see that Carey was able to do it.

The Tree Down Front. There's a tree in the neighbor's front yard with a super bloom of white flowers. Spring in Morehead is unbelievably beautify and a variety of brightly colored flowers are beginning to bloom. It's great.

As Hope Becomes Expectation. The violence and hatred that killed Martin Luther King are endemic to American society and are best represented by the strength of the activist right-wing in American politics. But I believe that the will to create a better society is once again gaining strength and I'm looking forward to seeing a renewal of the kind of social progress that was accomplished in King's time.