Today, more than ever, may be an appropriate time to reflect on his legacy

Far left and far right groups should be well aware that the man who led the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the man whom we honor today, is looking down from heaven and is not happy with you.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a paragon of nonviolent protest. Why? Not only because it's what God wants. It works.

MLK Jr. would never urge his followers to burn down cities, loot urban businesses, including many minority-owned businesses and terrorize whole neighborhoods.

Chicago, New York, Kenosha, Seattle, Portland, Washington and so many more. Millions of dollars of property damage, dozens of lives, hundreds of injuries.

He would not have urged his followers to storm police precinct houses and light courthouses on fire with people inside.

He would have condemned approaching white folk eating lunch at a sidewalk cafe and harassing and intimidating them.

He would have seen no high ground in violently taking over whole sections of a city and creating autonomous zones in which violent crimes were perpetrated each and every night for months.

He would not have seen the merit in such carnage, nor in the rioting at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

You see you can't equivocate violence, he believed. You can't parse "good" violence and "bad" violence. The ends don't justify the means, he believed. Violence is violence, plain and simple.

This would be an appropriate day to remember this, his legacy, and to move forward as Americans of every race, creed, color and heritage in a manner that would make him proud of all of us.

- HT