The struggle and fight continues

Fifty-eight years ago tomorrow, April 4, marks the anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s murder.

Gunned down by James Earl Ray in Memphis , Tennessee the civil rights leader was a mere 39 years old.

Three days later, amid rallies and demonstrations across the country, a national day of mourning was declared by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

In Chula Vista the American flag over the Civic Center was flown at half staff while Rabbi Sheldon Stauber hosted a memorial service at Temple Beth Shalom.

Written on the editorial pages of The Star-News at the time were words intended to nudge Americans forward in thoughts and deeds.

“The memory of Martin Luther King will loom long and large in American history. But it is up to us whether his life and death casts a shadow of light or of darkness.

“We must overcome our past, or our past will engulf us. We must make this effort, and succeed at it, because it is right and because it is fair and because we cannot afford to do otherwise if our children are to grow up in a just and secure nation.”

Decades later the children and the grandchildren of those children are still struggling to step completely away from the shadows of this country’s past.

While incremental progress toward equality has been made—not without constant struggle and pressure— we still grapple with lingering racism, prejudice and animosity toward people of color.

Additionally, the net has been widened to capture those who would stand in support of civil rights, due process and equal treatment under the law so that those who speak out against a broken and rigged system would be labeled as unpatriotic and un-American.

But there are few activities that embody the spirt of the United States of America more than the act of protesting the power brokers of government and seeking redress.

Last weekend’s “No Kings” protest in Chula Vista and across the country was a fitting, if inadvertent, way to pay tribute to one of the icons of the Civil Rights movement. The fight for true justice and equality is long and arduous but it is one worth having.