Forty years ago, April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walked out on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tenn., and was felled by an assassin's bullet.
It is a poignant and hurtful thing to recall. But, now, 40 years later, circumstances provoke more than the usual reflection about this man, his life and our country.
Why, given what King lived for and died for, and given his milestone civil rights achievements in his short life, in the United States 2008, are we still talking about race?
We have today not just black millionaires, but black billionaires, rich and famous black celebrities, accomplished black professionals in every field, and black CEOs. We have black governors, mayors, and national and state legislatures filled with black representatives.
Certainly in our large cities, interracial couples no longer get stares.
Will electing a black man president finally bridge the racial divide? The prospect hovers before us. Yet, rather than fading into the background, focus on race is getting even more intense.
Can it be that, along with money and sex, talk about race will be with us forever?
Dr. King asked the question in his great "I Have a Dream" speech.
"There are those who are asking … When will you be satisfied?" And he answered, quoting the prophet Amos, not until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
I would assume that even the most rabid Obama supporter will not claim that an Obama administration will produce a mighty stream of righteousness.
So will it ever end?
The civil rights movement led by Dr. King was, of course, a Christian movement. The songs were spirituals, and the imagery that gave color and tangibility to the movement was of the Bible. It recalled the Israelites enslaved in Egypt and Moses demanding of Pharaoh to "Let my people go."
And, of course, in those fateful words that night before he was shot, Dr. King said that he'd gone "up to the mountain … And I've seen the Promised Land."
The Israelites wandered for 40 years. Soon after they left Egypt, it was evident that the generation of slaves was not ready to become the generation that could handle the responsibilities of freedom.
Although there probably is no word more frequently used in American political discourse than freedom, our popular sense of this word is quite different than the principle in that biblical story of liberation.
The crucial stop between escaping the bonds of Egyptian servitude and entry into the Promised Land was receipt of the law. Freedom amounted to an exchange of external oppression for assumption of personal responsibility.
Like Moses, the great prophet and leader of the Israelites, Dr. King did not make it into the land.
Perhaps the message is that even the greatest leader has his place. He can lead in adversity, but he cannot live your life for you.
The great sin of the Israelites that condemned them to wander for 40 years was to say, despite having all that they needed, "We're not ready … we can't do it … the challenge is too great."
The movement Dr. King led produced the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This closed the door on legal discrimination in this country.
But 40-plus years later we still hear, "We're not ready … we can't do it."
Single-parent homes, drugs, promiscuity, abortion and sexually transmitted diseases, high school dropouts and the poverty that comes with all this are not caused by "Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests." Nor do they have anything to do with what color or sex our president happens to be. They reflect personal decisions and can only be addressed through personal conviction and resolve.
The Israelites were also warned about false prophets. In today's terminology, I'd call this anyone, be it politician or clergyman, who suggests that anyone but you can solve your own problems.
The greatest tribute every American, black or white, can pay to Dr. King today is to embrace the traditional values and truths critical to live the free life that his work helped make possible.
By so doing, racial politics will finally end and righteousness will flow "like a mighty stream."