This past Martin Luther King Jr. Day is normally known as a day which thousands of people mark the holiday and celebrate Dr. King’s legacy by participating in marches and community service outreaches. However, President Donald Trump’s way of honoring the civil rights icon- in my opinion- was downright disappointing and disgraceful. Trump left the White House to pay a 2 minute visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C. Monday morning. After arriving at the memorial, he and Vice President Pence, laid a wreath at the base of Dr. King’s sculpture and made a remark to the press only thanking them for being there.
President Trump failed to properly honor Dr. King, there was no speech commending all that he did during the civil rights movement. Nor did the president even mention the effect Dr. King’s legacy had on America today. In my opinion, the President’s short visit to the MLK memorial shows that he does not care about Dr. King nor what he stood for which is equality. Not only are people disappointed in the President for his short visit to the memorial, vice President Pence is also being criticized by choosing to compare Trump to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Pence stated “One of my favorite quotes from Dr. King was ‘now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.’ You think of how he changed America,” Pence then continued. “He inspired us to change through the legislative process to become a more perfect union. That’s exactly what President Trump is calling on the Congress to do: Come to the table in a spirit of good faith. We’ll secure our border, we’ll reopen our government.” For Pence to use a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. to justify building the wall is disrespectful because we know that Dr. King would have never support something like that. He also would not have supported the divisive rhetoric that President Trump and Pence supports.
I am a firm believer in the saying “Actions speak louder than words” and President Trump’s actions spoke volumes to me and thousands of other Americans on Martin Luther King Jr. day.