The MLK Unity Day — We are Community

by Norman Franklin

Norman Franlin

The discord of our social, politi cal and religious cultures misleads us. The tone of discourse would have us believe that the American people are fractured along ideological lines. No longer one nation under God, but two nations, maybe three, depending on where our values and beliefs align with the identities of America.

The syncretic fusion of our social, political, and religious values bred a new identity of a fractured communi ty. It created a gulf that widened over values, moral issues, and the dismantling of our political infrastructure. A peek into social media ‘as lived foot age’ and broadcast news reveal a widening chasm pushed apart by angry and violent adherents on either side. America is fractured. The MLK Unity Day demonstrated otherwise.

There was something different about this year’s march. An urgent determination. A desire perhaps to re center our alignments. A need to refocus on the messaging of Dr. King— we must dismantle the pacifying “dream” imagery and the ceremonial unity.

And that’s been the show for decades when progress— slow and inadequate—cere monial appearances of unity sufficed the day. Things have changed. The rollback of social gains, equity in the workplace, and political advances sound an ominous warn ing—injustice to Black Americans, injustice to Brown Americans, injustice to our immigrants is injustice to America. The prophetic words of Dr. King resonate―we must become the America promised.

The temperature was frigid on MLK Day. A yearning for unity burned within us. It warmed the American people as we marched. The young and the aged marched together. There was something special about the day. An elderly gentleman—an aged white man I’m guessing at the end of his eighth decade or early in his ninth— braved elements. He walked with a cane and brought up the rear of the march. Thousands turned out in the marches across the nation.

More than 100 participated in the march in Somerset. The elderly gentleman, each step anchored by the soft arc of his cane meeting the sidewalk, completed the two-block march. His determination spoke volumes.

The unspoken statement—particu larly amid the cultural and political climate of our era—we are commu nity. Community is not the absence of fracture—it is the decision to stand together within it.