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The problems that
Martin Luther King faced Jan. 18, 2000 In Cortez, Martin Luther King Day was largely ignored. Federal and state offices were closed, but county and city employees reported to work as usual. The only notice most of us took of the holiday was when our mail didn’t appear.Students had to report for class. Many (we hope) were treated to history lessons about MLK and the ways in which we’ve all benefited from gains in civil rights brought about by King and people like him, who were brave enough to protest the status quo. It’s tempting to believe that Martin Luther King Day has nothing to do with us. Few Americans of African descent live here. The civil rights movement is history, we think. Unfortunately, that’s somewhat true. We don’t pay as much attention to civil rights as we did in the mid-Sixties, for several reasons. Some gains were made; conditions are better than they were. We don’t force members of minorities to go to the back of the bus or drink from "separate but equal" water fountains. Mainly, though, we have no leader who motivates us all to follow. The civil rights movement, such as it is, is fractured along ethnic lines, and it doesn’t speak to those of us who are still (albeit barely) in the majority. We really don’t know quite what to do (and we’re fairly comfortable with the way things are), so we do nothing. We haven’t solved the problem, though. This newspaper occasionally receives complaints about inequitable treatment of minorities by local businesses. Some New Mexico car dealers won’t sell to Native Americans. Our educational system is far more successful with white, middle-class kids than with minority children. Nationally, we still read of restaurant and hotel chains that discriminate against people of color. Women are still paid considerably less on average than men in the same positions. It hasn’t been very long since a Native American was hauled from a box in a Cortez alley and brutally kicked, just because he was different from his assailants — just because they could. How can such prejudice benefit any of us? Martin Luther King had his faults — he was human, after all — but his dream extended beyond color boundaries. Some Americans may have been offended by the realities of the man, but it’s not too much to ask that we all pause, once a year, to acknowledge the dream. |
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