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Janus, January, and an American Hero

 

By James Utt
By James Utt

The holiday lights that festooned the village have come down. Santa no longer drives the city trollies. January has arrived. This cold month, named for the Roman god Janus, he of two faces, one looking backward, one forward, reminds me how long I have to wait until spring warms my aging bones.

If old Janus is still around, he would certainly cover his backward looking face because 2016 gave us pain and heartbreak from Aleppo to Orlando and beyond. With trepidation, his forward face looks out at 2017 and what may come. Czar Vladimir the First is gaining power around the world as he snuffs out freedom in his own country. A guy with the world’s worst haircut and clothes (are they his pajamas?) plays with nukes in North Korea. Janus, like many in Laguna, holds his breath as he sees how our next president, who seems to favor communication in 140 characters or less, handles the world’s toughest job. This while he keeps his job as executive producer of “Celebrity Apprentice.”

But Janus told me, and I will tell you, why there are reasons to celebrate this month and they have to do with African Americans.You may say, “Why not wait until February, because that is Black History Month?” Sorry, at my age, I can’t afford to wait around.

There was never an African American cabinet member until Jan. 18, 1966, when LBJ named Robert Weaver to be HUD secretary. Ironically, President Trump has selected another African American, Dr. Ben Carson, to hold the same post. Just in November, Dr. Carson said he was too inexperienced to run a federal agency. I wonder why the former Republican presidential contestant thought he could run the entire government?

Another date of note for African Americans is Jan. 13, 1990. Douglas Wilder became governor of Virginia. You might ask how many other African American governors has our country had since then? Wait while I count them up. One. We’ve got a ways to go here in our post racial society.

Loving college football, I am aware that Clemson University in South Carolina is a national power. Harvey Gantt became the first African American to be admitted to this institution in January of 1963. Ah, South Carolina, first to secede from the union, was just about last to integrate its universities.

Gantt went on to become mayor of Charleston and ran unsuccessfully for senator against Jesse Helms.

Helms led the filibuster in the U.S. Senate in an attempt to stop legislation that would make Martin Luther King’s birthday a national holiday.

That brings us to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., born Jan. 15, 1929. Coming to young manhood in Orange County in the 1950s and 1960s, I heard the slurs directed at Dr. King by classmates, family, and neighbors. “Communist sympathizer.” “Martin Lucifer Coon.” “A threat to all American traditions.” But, as I saw how “Negroes” were attacked by the likes of Sheriff “Bull” Connor, how civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi, and the brutality at the Edmund Pettis Bridge, my learned prejudices began to fall away. Reading his “Letter From the Birmingham Jail,” made my heart and mind begin to change.

I dare you to find someone outside of the Klan or the “alt right,” who is still to this day, not electrified by his “I have a dream” speech. Inspiring and hopeful, it was a call to action. Like Gandhi before him, he led the fight against injustice. Like Gandhi, his struggle for brotherhood and freedom cost him his life.

We need another such as he to struggle against the remaining injustices, to seek a better world. Sadly, none appear on the horizon. I see self-promoters and people that shout at each other on cable talk shows, but no real leaders like Dr. King.

Let me leave you with one of his quotes. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can.”

This January, let us remember a great American, and, with Janus, let us look forward to a more just and peaceful 2017.

 

James Utt still has a dream.

 

 

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4 COMMENTS

  1. Don’t be discouraged Jim. Look and listen on the 21st – women’s march. It’s not about one voice, or one person. It’s the community. We can all do our part if we listen to each other.

  2. Jim, I always enjoy your columns, but this in particular, resonated with me. After seeing Hidden Figures last week, I question just how far this country has progressed in the area of civil rights. On a personal level this election has certainly rekindled my activist heart. “Be the light in the darkness.”

  3. Thank you! During such a discouraging season, this was good to read and a reminder that there are those who inspire and will fight for what is right!

  4. Jim, great column as always. I can also remember the slurs against MLK, even by a teacher. We have made progress, but still have a long way to go. Who will be that new leader that can still inspire us to be better? These are still exciting times.

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