The best way honor Dr. King? Allow all of America to realize his dream

It may sometimes seem like we're in a time warp, with battles in the streets a vivid reminder of the bad old days. Young men condemned to death because of the color of their skin no longer hang like "strange fruit" from trees. But they do lay lifeless in pools of blood in a nation where police are conditioned to shoot first and not be questioned later.
The richest nation in the world sends little children, black and white, red and brown and yellow, to bed hungry, cold, scared, and scarred for life.

The cycle of poverty is never-ending and its spread is engulfing more and more of what used to be a comfortable middle class. Who, besides millionaires and billionaires, truly feel they can hand off a better future to their children? Tax cuts for the rich are only outstripped by job contractions in blue- and white-collar industries, alike.

And sadly, we are not yet a color-blind society. We have turned prisons into profit centers, with poor boys and girls, predominantly black and brown, the coin of that realm. More black men in prison than in college, by far? For shame.

We allow a brave military community to sacrifice, again and again while "chicken hawks" speak of endless opportunities to wage more war even as their children are well-insulated in a draft-free America, required to do no more than wear flag lapel pins while stumping for dear old flag-waving mom or dad. But as one Army mom said, her son isn't a pair of "boots on the ground." Dr. King, who vehemently opposed a Vietnam War in which the poor and under-served were so disproportionately sacrificed, would have joined in her admonition. And he likely would have wept over how little we seem to care about the small percent of Americans asked to sacrifice life and limb to protect this country while the oblivious majority goes about business-as-usual.

Yet on the 30th anniversary of this national holiday of reflection and celebration of this national hero, we have to salute the progress that has been made. And just as we have been lately reminded of the inspiration and innovation that took this nation to the moon, let us remember the passion, courage and willpower that led Martin Luther King Jr. to do nothing less than sacrifice his life for a better America  he saw in the dream he dared dream.

Dr. King and his rainbow army, through commitment and a bravery beyond imagination, did make this a better nation. Together, they marched and persevered, showing a Southern-born president an honorable “American” way to finally end the Civil War and put an end to the Jim Crow era.

Civil Rights acts flowed from both the civil disobedience of Dr. King and millions of other selfless Americans as well as from President Lyndon Baines Johnson's pen as he signed landmark legislation.

Dr. King's dream of equal opportunity turned into reality for millions. Just receiving once-elusive opportunities lifted so many boats, then and now, especially those of African Americans, women and other previously voiceless swaths of U.S. society.

There is a vibrant black middle class and beyond today. There are political and social gains, for Hispanics, women, blacks, the LGBT community that cannot be denied, or erased.

There is a Barack Obama, who reached the mountaintop Dr. King envisioned for such a youngster as our president who dared to dream.

But I would guess that Dr. King would say none of the progress matters if we continue to ignore those left behind. So, even as we celebrate Dr. King, I can't help but selfishly thing of the "what ifs..."

Oh, how we would have been blessed had Dr. King lived. What a powerful voice he would have surely weaved through the decades, addressing what is good and great about the American dream, but never muting the call to address all that is still unfulfilled.

His words can still light the way. All we need do is listen, again and again. His powerful, timeless message is  still there, echoing in our collective heart and soul.

He is a part of us. His dream is our dream. It is on us to carry it through to fruition.