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The man-child is now president…again.

And all I can do is to weep for our nation over what we’ve done to ourselves. Not all of us had a hand in it, of course, but the decision to re-elect him will affect all of us. Collectively we will experience the consequences of the bellicose words and actions we are going to see over the next four years.

The fact that today is when our nation remembers the birth and life of Martin Luther King, Jr. has the air of divine irony.

The two men could not be more different, one a reminder of goodness in human form, the other a reminder of how debased human beings can be.

Trump peddles in hate, Dr. King lived by unconditional love.
Trump seeks to divide, Dr. King sought to bring us together.
Trump demonizes “the other,” Dr. King was “the other”.
Trump lives for himself, Dr. King lived – and died – for others.

Today I choose to think about Dr. King rather than Donald Trump. The latter measures success by what he can get. Dr. King measured it by what he could give.

He was a person everyone can tell their children and grandchildren about, and hold him up as someone they should try to be like.

We can tell them he said things like:

“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.”

He called America to remember what a truly great nation stands for, as far removed from what Trump understands greatness to be as the earth is from the stars.

I would described Dr. King not so much as a Christian as one who was Christian. What a shame and sad commentary on the state of modern evangelical Christianity that evangelicals have thrown in with the likes of Trump rather than following the example of one of the great Christians of the 20th century, and an example for the ages.

I lived through Dr. King’s assassination, along with John and Robert Kennedy’s, and I still remember how devastated I felt at the time. The future suddenly became a lot darker, hope seemed gone, and gloom and doom settled like a pall over the nation.

Fifty years later I have some of those same feelings because of Trump’s inauguration. A pall has reappeared, and the future has gotten a lot darker once again.

But then I remember that Dr. King and the black community in America as a whole lived through worse times than what we face now with a Trump 2 presidency.

Back then they didn’t live under the threat of losing their freedom because they had never fully had it. For them, democracy was something that only white people got to enjoy without hindrance or struggle.

Yet, Dr. King and his community never lost hope because he shared with them what kept him going, a dream of something much more than what existed at the time.

That dream is why he never gave up, never gave in to hatred, bitterness, feelings of revenge, or sought retribution on those who denied him the rights they had.

He called all of us to a higher standard because he believed God had made all of us equal, and he believed that the day we realized that would be the day when we would begin to become the nation we could be…but not until then.

I wish he had lived beyond the age of 39. I often wonder what great things he would have done if he had lived longer. Yet, I am grateful that our nation had him as long as we did. He did more in those 39 years than some people who become president will ever do.

Not because he had doors opened to him, but because his character led him to open doors that were closed, and then he invited everyone regardless of color or station in life to sit at the banquet table prepared for all.

Martin Luther King, Jr. day is a special day for America because it reminds us of what true greatness looks like.

This year the celebration of his birthday is being shared with the inauguration of a person who embodies not one quality that made Dr. King the amazing man he was.

But the nation will survive this day, and all the days ahead, because Dr. King’s life proved that people can do more than they think they can when they are genuinely committed to making the world a better place.

Trump will never know what that feels like, but the rest of us can.