40 years and still wandering the desert

Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot and killed 40 years ago today. He was 39 when he died, so he has now been dead longer than he lived. I don't know if that has any extra significance.

What would King think of America in 2008?

I guess it depends on how he got here – I'm sure if he'd seen the pace of progress since then, he'd be disappointed, but if he just showed up after a 40-year absence, maybe not as much.

But then again...we're kind of straddling a divide, aren't we? I'm sure King would be pleased as punch we have a black man running for president. And maybe even that the world's best golfer is also a black man.

But from Jena to Syracuse, nooses are back en vogue. The verb "lynch" is getting people fired from high-profile journalism jobs (great that they're getting fired; why are they still using it?). And Don Imus is back on the air.

I don't know. What does progress look like?