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I have no real issue with the man being honored. He represents something that was valid and important to a great many people. I lived it too. I still remember the day that Martin Luther King came to our tiny little town, well, not really to our town per se, but to speak at the all black college that was there. I remember the energy, if that's the right word. I remember the loudspeaders that could be heard on our street from the stadium. I remember my family saying that wherever that man (well, that wasn't the word they used) there was nothing but trouble. I remember the day the Civil Rights Bill was signed. I was sitting out on my grandma's front porch. Across the street where we had once lived was a large black family. They were drinking and whooping it up. It was a very emotional day on our street for both blacks and whites, although for very different reasons.

At first it seemed strange to see black folks in places they had never been before. The "whites only" signs came off the fronts of businesses. Many small business owners sought ways around it. We even moved to a town where there was some loophole in the law that made it possible to keep blacks from living there. It was explained to me once, but I was quite young so I don't remeber exactly what it was.

All in all I knew it was a good thing that had happened. I had often had arguments with family members and friends about fairness and how it was just wrong that they should be treated as if they weren't as good as we were. As I said before, the street I had lived on as a child was both black and white, one end of the street was "colored" the other end white. I remember thinking it odd even as a small child if I was walking on the sidewalk and a "colored" man would walk by, usually on the way to the college, that he would step out into the street instead of walking on the sidewalk. When I asked my great-grandma why, the only answer I got was that I was a white girl and he was a colored man.

My great-grandma lived in the last house on the "white" part of the street and there was a fence and a field between her home and the first "colored' home. These were very nice people and they had a little girl just a little older than me. I was not a very socialble child but I really liked this little girl. I thought that she was so sweet and pretty. We would play for hours in our respective yards, but always with the fence between us. The only time we were allowed to go beyond the boundary of the fence and stand side by side was when the ice cream man came. Even as a very young child I had a keen sense of justice and I knew that there was something fundamentally flawed about that.

That said, I also recall something more and more as I get older that I heard repeatedly. Folks would say that no matter what they get now, it would never be enough. At the time it just sounded like sour grapes, but now I am beginning to understand it. At the time it was about having the same freedoms that we did; getting to choose what restaurants they wanted to go to or where they wanted to shop or where they wanted to sit on the bus. It was about having the same access to education and job opportunities and having the right to vote. It was about being able to play on the other side of the fence and walk on the sidewalk. It was about all men being created equal and all of us being made in the image of God. All those were good things. But the elders seemed to have a way of seeing into the future and sensing that there would be trouble ahead as a result. My daddy once said "they will never be happy with being equal, they will want to be "better".

It really isn't important that Martin Luther King was a sinner the same as the rest of us. What he facilitated was good thing. I believe that his dream was just what he said it was and he devoted his life and sacrificed his life for what he believed. But I have often wondered what he would think if he could see how his mission has been twisted. Being from a time when humility was still considered a virtue I wonder if he might not be ashamed of providing a backdrop for the shameless racebaiting that goes on under the auspices of "civil rights". I wonder what Dr. King would think about those of his people who have forgotten to be grateful to God for lifting them up out of the oppression of inequality and have instead cast the yoke of oppression on others. Would he approve of the displacement of all else in our history in the interest of evening the score? Would he think it was a great idea to remove George Washington's picture from our schools and replace it with one of Malcolm X? Would he teach his people that they have a right not to be offended but that it is okay to offend us in any way they want? I don't think so.

Should MLK have a place of honor in history? Absolutely! Should he have a street named after him in every big city in the country? I guess that's up to the people of those cities. Should every great white man in history be eclipsed by his shadow? Absolutely not! It is not about race so much as it is about respect. I will treat people with respect as long as I am treated with respect. If you think it is fine to offend me every time you open your mouth, then expect me to not really care if what I say or do offends you. If you are going to denigrate those whom I consider to be worthy of honor, do not expect me to honor your heroes. If you are going to treat me as if what I think and how I feel doesn't matter, then don't expect me to put much value on what you think or how you feel. Some of you have become that which Dr. King despised. Some of you, like me, can remember. Would you be masters or would you be brothers? You can't have it both ways.