Today April 4 is the 43rd anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader who advocated for judging of people by the “content of their character, not the color of their skin.”

Dr. Cornel West, from wikipedia

On Friday night Dr. Cornel West, Princeton professor and author of a 1993 book “Race Matters”, spoke at Centennial Hall, invoking the legacy of Dr. King, asking the audience of about 1500 people, if America had become “colorblind as MLK envisioned.” He then went on to say that we have become “blind to the suffering of the poor, working people, indigenous people”. He said he was glad to be here in Arizona, the “epicenter of human rights”, that ethnic studies at TUSD was the “quest for truth.” Dr. West was highly critical of America saying that corporate greed/avarice had made us “well adjusted to injustice” and being “indifferent to the poor and other evils”. Read more about Dr. West (who has also acted in two Matrix movies) in wikipedia (click here.) And if you want to hear a 2 minute audio of his talk posted in the Tucson Weekly by John deDios (click here).

So have we become racially/ethnically “colorblind” in 2011?

Recently a man at an art show starting speaking to me in Japanese. When I answered him in English, he started asking me if I was part-Native American and what tribe I belonged to. He just had to know what I was racially and I refused to say, as I didn’t think it was relevant at an art show. He was first treating me as “foreign”– as a visiting Japanese tourist, which I am not.

I did grow up “colorblind” on the Big Island of Hawaii. I had public school teachers who were Caucasian, Korean, Japanese, Native Hawaiian, Chinese, etc. and it never occurred to me to categorize them by race. The were all the same to us students, only different by their last names. We accept people in Hawaii by their culture and character. I knew some people in my community were Puerto Rican but that meant to me that they ate pasteles at their parties and danced to “kachi kachi” music. That’s all, it was cultural, as it was with my Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiian, Samoan friends (and lots of those who were of mixed ancestry, very common in Hawaii).

I didn’t even know that I belonged to a racial “minority” until I went to Boston to attend law school. It was then that I learned what it was like for Black Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, etc. on the U.S. Mainland. Ask most members of a racial minority if there is racism/discrimination in America, and they will likely answer in the affirmative.

Being as today is the anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination, let us reflect upon race relations in America, and strive to be better and more accepting of other cultures and people of a different ethnicity.

Let us remember Martin Luther King Junior‘s birthday in the wake of the violence of January 8, 2011 here in Tucson, Arizona.

Martin Luther King, Jr. from wikipedia

January 15 was slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. This year the MLK holiday is celebrated on January 17, but I think this year our minds are mostly remembering the recent mass murders here in Tucson exactly a week ago on January 8, 2011 of six innocent persons, along with the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords of CD 8 and 12 other civilian bystanders.

King preached non-violence and marched for civil rights and peace. Yet he was struck down at age 39 by an assassin’s rifle bullet in Memphis, Tennessee.

Our nation was shocked even more when two months later former New York U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was also assassinated by a man with a hand gun, while Kennedy was campaigning for U.S. President. He was 42 years old.

I would like to think that King’s message of non-violence and peace resonated with generations of people after these two horrible assassinations, both in 1968. I had hoped that his death had not been in vain. Now I’m not so sure based on the recent mass attack by an 22 year old armed man in Tucson of an innocent crowd of constituents waiting to talk to their U.S. Congresswoman. 6 brave Americans gave up their lives that Saturday morning.

As U.S. President Barack Obama said at the memorial service at the University of Arizona’s McKale Center on January 12, 2011:

They were fulfilling a central tenet of the democracy envisioned by our founders – representatives of the people answering to their constituents, so as to carry their concerns to our nation’s capital. Gabby called it “Congress on Your Corner” – just an updated version of government of and by and for the people.

Such senseless tragedies, for people just “practicing democracy.”

Let us continue to work towards mutual cooperation, tolerance, acceptance, and civil discourse. On Friday local politicians in Tucson pledged at a press conference to “commit to promote a civil discussion of the issues we face.” Let’s hope they fulfill their pledge.

Please join in the MLK March starting at the U of A Mall (8:30 a.m.) and Festival Celebration at Reid Park (10:30 a.m.) on Monday January 17. Let us together pray, march, and celebrate in Dr. King’s name for all that he stood for.

Violence has no place in our society.

1/17/11 Update: speaking today at the MLK opening ceremony at U of A mall:
Clarence Boykins (organizer of this event for 26 years from Tucson-Southern AZ Black Chamber of Commerce), Congressman Raul Grijalva (CD 7), Mayor Bob Walkup, Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias, former City Councilman Chuck Ford, Councilman Richard Fimbres, Eva Dong Carrillo from Sunnyside School Board. Also attending: City Councilman Paul Cunningham and City Manager Mike Letcher, and thousands of Tucsonans.

Many of us grew up experiencing or hearing about the assassinations of:

U.S. President John F. Kennedy (Nov. 1963 in Dallas, Texas)

Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader (April, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee)

Robert F. Kennedy, former U.S. Senator from New York, and U.S. Attorney General (June, 1968 in Los Angeles, Calif.)

Congressman Leo Ryan of CD 11 California (November, 1978 in Guyana); his aide Jackie Spier was also shot in that incident but recovered.

Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, San Francisco Supervisor (also in November, 1978 in San Francisco, Calif.)

These were undoubtedly political attacks, based on the public figure’s stature and political beliefs.

So also was the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in May, 1981 in Washington, D.C., where his White House press secretary James Brady was shot in the head & permanently disabled. President Reagan was also shot but recovered.

And now a Congressional aide to CD 8 Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been shot & killed in the line of his U.S. House duties. Gabe Zimmerman was her Director of community outreach in her District office in Tucson, and was only 30 years old when he was killed on January 8, 2011.

And his employer Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot as well, and is in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit at University Medical Center, following brain surgery. Police are saying that the shooter was targeting Giffords, as she was the first one shot, and a federal complaint has been filed against Jared Lee Loughner for attempted murder of a Member of Congress.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords

My heart goes out to Gabe’s family, as I used to be a legislative aide on Capitol Hill to a politician– U.S. Senator Dan Inouye (D-HI) who is still serving in the U.S. Senate. None of these Congressional leaders have security around them, though some may hire a “bodyguard” or a strong male aide, who accompanies them to events.

But no aide wants to think that they will be killed serving their Senator or Congressmember.

I just read an interesting article about Congressional staffers and this tragedy:
http://dailycaller.com/2011/01/09/remember-congresswoman-giffordss-staff/. “They believe in their boss. They believe in the institution of Congress. And they believe that they are making a difference.”

My 25 year old son asked me yesterday after the horrific Tucson shooting of Congresswoman Giffords and 3 of her aides, how this act of senseless violence will affect the future of town halls and political events.

Time will tell, but it certainly will have a “chilling effect” on the openness of these political events in the future of America. Sadly enough, Congresswoman Giffords is open and friendly, and this may have been her last “Congress on Your Corner” constituent event.

Pray for Congresswoman Giffords’ full recovery. She was working for her constituents in CD 8 at the time of the shooting, and didn’t deserve to be shot outside of the Safeway food store on Oracle/Ina Road here in Tucson. And neither did her three aides who were also shot, especially Gabe Zimmerman, who did make a difference in constituent services. After all, Giffords was re-elected twice.

How do we stop this senseless violence against public figures (and their aides)?