The original post extracted below was about the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast here last year and the divisions roiling the country that weekend (the Covington kids video from a suspicious Twitter account later suspended):
Those of us of a certain age, but not quite old enough, were too young to attend the 1963 March on Washington. The march and Rev. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech influenced our era, our views, and changed the country. There are times one wishes, if only I could have been there for that moment in history. Then again, such thinking fixes the civil rights movement in time. The truth is, that struggle never ended.
Saturday morning, Ernest Green, one of the “Little Rock Nine” spoke to Asheville’s 38th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast. He retold the story of how in 1958 he and several classmates integrated Central High School escorted by 101st Airborne Division troops.
“Over 60 years ago, we arrived in the back of an army wagon at Central High School,” Green said. “I don’t think any of us thought we’d still be talking about high school 60 years later.”
They were just looking for a better education and a chance at upward mobility.
King, who followed the Little Rock effort, was little known at the time. Green said he paid King little mind because, well, King was an adult and he was 16. But King was there when Green graduated, with anti-sniper teams overlooking the football field, helicopters flying overhead, dogs sniffing for bombs, and Green’s classmates not wanting to stand too close to him.
King quoted an old hymn to Green in the car on their way, saying God wouldn’t bring you this far to leave you now.
That struggle against white supremacy never ended.
Heading into campaign season 2020, it is wise to remember how easily passions get ginned up these days. There will be people out there looking to inflame them deliberately, knowing the truth takes time to catch up (if ever) when lies blast off the blocks first. Propaganda efforts aimed at sowing division were effective in 2016. Carefully edited video worked again this time just last year. It pushed just the right buttons. People convinced faithlessness is more common than honor are on high alert for any signs of betrayal. They will find it. Even if imagined or overinflated by social media.
Dan Lavoie, a new York-based political strategist, watched the MAGA kids video blow up his social media feed during the King holiday weekend last year. “I don’t regret being outraged because it was outrageous,” he told the Washington Post. “I do worry about who is outraging us and what they have to get out of it.”
The post-game analysis of the Lincoln Memorial protest altered his original take:
Lavoie had previously written about the regret that he experienced after being influenced by one of the popular Facebook pages that Russia had set up as part of this effort, Blacktivist. That group, too, had played to resentments over racism and the treatment of minorities.
On Monday, he found himself taking to Twitter again.
“We all got played. Myself included,” he wrote of the Catholic-school-kid videos. “It’s important to truly recognize what’s happening to us, over and over.”
Step down to DEFCON 4. But be alert. If you have bullshit detectors, make sure they have fresh batteries.
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