A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true. Martin Luther King Jr., Selma March 8, 1965

These words were spoken the day after Bloody Sunday when civil rights protesters were attacked and beaten on the Edmund Pettis Bridge, a terrible day before many of us were born. For some of us new to the world of political activism, until recent years these words were good moral guidance to do the right thing; but not necessarily deeply impactful to our day to day lives. I say this based on my own experience, even though I recognized the continuing inequities in our society. Even while I recognized the risk to my African American son and nephews and nieces. And yet wasn’t the dawning of the Obama era the evidence that we’d achieved a milestone? That we’d traveled beyond the midpoint on the path to justice? Hadn’t we reached that point where most of us didn’t have to face the choice to stand up or die?

But then 2016. We were shocked and upset and blindsided because we were so busy celebrating our first black president that we failed to predict the rebound from the right that would lead to Trump. Worse still, even post Trump, we failed to see that Republicans would target the very bedrock of our democracy as a means to destroy the legacies of the Civil Rights movement and Obama. We failed to see the risk to our constitution. This increasing assault on our foundation, on our rule of law, will destroy our future as a democracy. And so it becomes clear that we must stand for right, for justice and for that which is true.

So now beyond moral guidance I look to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words to remind myself that what was true then is truer now. And that the distance we’ve traveled is only a few miles down the road compared to where we must be and nowhere near the midpoint. I look to his words to remind myself that while democracy dies if we don’t stand up; the fight for democracy starts and continues when each individual makes that choice to stand or die. I’ve chosen. Have you?

With respect and admiration

Debby Roseman
President, Katy Area Democrats
[email protected]