As we prepare to thaw in the South, we take this time to remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who would have been 82 tomorrow.  What would Dr. King have said about the recent AZ massacre?  The culture of violence that has come to define America?  We can assume  he would have been proud that we the people finally elected an African American President, but disappointed in the Birthers and Teabaggers and other racist right-wingers who still judge a man by the color of his skin instead of the content of his character.

Would he be shocked to find that, 40 years after the major events of the Civil Rights Movement, our highest-paid media pundits accuse this president of being a racist and having a “deep seated hatred of white people?” Or call the President a “Halfrican American,” “Magic Negro,” the “affirmative action candidate,”  and suugest a return to the days of segregated busses? The two top guys in the Neocon media – that would be Glenn “Tears of a Clown” Beck and Rush “Oxymoron” Limbaugh, have recently  – and separately – justified slavery and advocated for a return to segregation.

Moving beyond Obama, Rush has suggested NFL games look like skirmishes between the Bloods and theCrips, suggested the NAACP should practice rioting by knocking over liquor stores, and characterized Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson as looking like a composite photo of every wanted criminal.

So while we remember MLK on the program tonight, and the many incredible accomplishments of his all-too-short leadership of the Civil Rights Movement, we should also realize that in the year 2011 some of our highest-paid and most respected members of society are blatantly, openly racist.  We still have so far to go.