Martin Luther King Jr

There will always be bigots. It's one of the sadder lessons a person learns as he goes through life.

When I was small, my dad used to say a lot of old people were going to have to die off to eliminate racial prejudice. So I figured at the worst, in 20-25 years, bigotry would be gone and peace and justice would prevail.

Dad was wrong -- not that valiant efforts and sacrifices haven't been made to eliminate America's deadliest cancer.

Old people pass their bigotry to their young, and little angels in their cribs begin to sprout horns as they work toward a cultural vocabulary that will assure the continuation of the disease.

Martin Luther King Jr. was in my mind the greatest living American. Some people gag when I say that. Fine, let 'em gag.

I know he wasn't perfect. Neither is Rush Limbaugh or Jimmy Swaggart or Bill Clinton or W.

Bigotry is a pretty strong emotion. It enables a person to lie himself to a superior position.

If it's not skin bigotry, it's sex bigotry, and if it's not sex bigotry, it's national bigotry. A lot of people just aren't going to give up their prejudices, no matter how many lives are lost.

Bigotry knocked down the Twin Towers and put a hole in the Pentagon. It's not just race. Sometimes it's religion.

Sometimes it's land. Our land is better than your land, underground oil reserves notwithstanding.

Besides, that's our oil.

The thing that was unique about Martin Luther King Jr. is that he is the only man I've ever watched who actually put a dent into bigotry.

By not countering violence and prejudice with more violence and prejudice, he moved a mountain of prejudice in this country. I think that's because when the bigotry is peeled back, a far more beautiful human being emerges.

Sure, a bigot in Memphis gunned King down before he could get the mountain pushed into the ocean, but he stayed around long enough to lift it off some of the sillier manifestations that had taken hold.

My home state of Oklahoma wasn't at the heart of the bigotry issue in the '50s, but there were problems there, just the same. Early on, I became accustomed to seeing the signs. "Colored people go to the backdoor and someone will serve you."

Of course, the cooks inside handling the food were usually "colored." In other words, we'll take your money and eat your food as long as you hide your blackness from view in the kitchen or in the alley. Injustice is easier if you keep it out of sight.

When I was less than 6 years old, I traveled frequently on the bus with my mother, and I still remember seeing "colored" people go to the big fat seat in the rear of the bus. To be honest, I always envied them. Their seat looked more comfortable than those in front, somehow more important.

Separate drinking fountains are gone now. So are separate bathrooms. We integrate blacks into college athletic programs, provided they can run a 4.5 40 and lead us to glory.

Laws have been made to level the playing field, and sometimes dramatic progress has been made; but those laws aren't always enforced, and they can always be revoked if the bigot's voice becomes loud enough and hateful enough and he holds the necessary seat in Congress.

I wish King could have hung around a few more years. A lot of people hate him. But a lot more loved him. He made us a better nation.

Having a day like this to remember him is good. In great part because of his efforts, this nation is now a legitimate democracy.

January 20, 2004