Ah, Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Utah. A day for Republican lawmakers state and federal to tweet a few "safe" quotes from King, and applaud his "message of unity."

King wasn't a unity guy. He was a radical fighting injustice. Some crossover there, but a lot of daylight too. The only "unity" he spend his final months talking about was the intersection of racism, inequality, war, and power. There are some great reads out there I wish everyone would spend time with. King's own words, of course. But also the history of the times he lived and worked in. Learning about the times he lived and worked in, and the very human and flawed person he was made his words even more meaningful for me. The books and docs are out there and easy to find and please do.

King is most inspirational as a person when broadly understood but his words have the impact when applied specifically, immediately. In 1967 King wrote:“We aren’t merely struggling to integrate a lunch counter now. We’re struggling to get some money to be able to buy a hamburger or a steak when we get to the counter.”

Utah lawmakers, Governor Herbert, during the work of the tax task force last year you, all of us, heard from a teacher keeping a make-shift food pantry for students in her classroom closet. You closed out the task force debate and passage of tax "reform" patting yourselves on the back with a WSJ op-ed by a Club for Growth hack based on an ALEC state ranking.

Spare us the MLK Jr memes.






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No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices. -Edward R. Murrow

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