“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. — Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.”
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the summer of 1963, Dr. King spoke on the Washington Mall and delivered his powerful and iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. This speech is often quoted and referenced by people throughout the world as both inspirational and aspirational. It is cited as a clarion call for equality and justice for all people regardless of race, class, religious beliefs or national origin. King was calling for both social and economic justice and the freedom to engage in the full citizenship of the United States of America with all of the rights and privileges therein. In the past week, we have seen mass murder in a synagogue, a terrorist plot to commit mass destruction through the mailing of pipe bombs targeting high-ranking government officials of a single political party including two former presidents and a presidential candidate, and two people randomly gunned down at a grocery store simply because they were Black.
There is a common dogma espoused by the individuals responsible for the aforementioned set of events that inextricably binds them together. The perpetrators of these horrendous acts of hatred and animus are all far right-wing fanatics; they are all white men who publicly proclaimed their hatred of Jews, blacks and immigrants. The core belief of these 3 men is that the targeted groups of people and the liberal ideology of the left wing that embraces “socialism” (as they call it) have eroded the America they envision. They believe these people who are not “true” Americans and are overrunning “their country” have wronged them. And, they hear the demagogy of moment in language that incites them to act and to act violently to protect their beliefs, their country, and to put down the threat.
The urgency of this moment is eerily similar to the precipice of decision upon where we stood as a nation 55 years ago in 1963. The rhetoric of those times ignited a decade of civil unrest, the burning of major American cities, high profile assassinations, bombings, cross burnings and cold-blooded murder that took us well into the next decade. Now in 2018, the nation cries out for moral leadership and there is none to be found. The People are on edge, traumatized and exhausted by uncertainty and fatigued by vitriolic debate, hyper-partisanship, and the knowledge that we are sitting on a powder keg of hate and tribalism that can be ignited at any moment with no plausible remedy and no water in sight. Can we save our democracy, or does it need to be destroyed and built anew? The assumption that our 
elected leaders are required to work towards the good of ALL people necessitates a type of “magical thinking” in these days and times. And it seems, given where we find ourselves as a nation, mere belief in a democratic process that works for us ALL seems to be woefully inadequate, intentionally oblivious and clearly naïve.
