Editorials

Each March on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march, a rite of passage occurs in Selma. Civil rights leaders, politicians and the socially aware return to the scene of numerous wrongs to pay homage to the courage of Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of others who helped dismantle Jim Crow.

March 2007 — the 42nd anniversary of the violence acted upon peaceful marchers by the so-called law enforcers from Alabama — was no different. It was, in fact, a high point, as two presidential candidates — Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — joined in the ceremonies.

There's nothing wrong with that.

American veterans, their families and politicians have long returned to the scene of famous U.S. wartime battles. This tradition may best be captured in the opening of Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, as an elderly vet, accompanied by children and grandchildren, tearfully plods through a French cemetery looking for the names of fallen comrades.

Folks return to Selma, which is a symbol of civil rights conflicts across the South. Just as they do on King Day, they come to remember the struggle, to mourn the fallen and to emphatically say, "Never again."

Politicians face a particular temptation. It's a mistake to think the work of civil rights is accomplished by coming to Selma on one day in March or by marking Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday in January — as so many are today.

In fact, we ought to judge our leaders and those who aspire to lead us — including presidential candidates — not by what they do and say today, but by what they do and say for the other 364 days in a year.

The struggle for achieving Dr. King's dream of destroying a society where skin color and poverty are barriers to opportunity is not accomplished by checking off dates on the calendar.

It is work done day-by-day, fighting back against the forces of apathy, bigotry and greed.

The major Democratic presidential candidates, Obama and Clinton, lost track of that goal a few weeks back. Their respective campaigns waded into a mucky swamp of parry and counter-parry over Dr. King and his rightful place in the civil rights struggle.

To their credit, the candidates called off their overzealous campaign staffers. Last week's Democratic presidential debate showed the candidates were ready to move past a spat that proved nothing.

Such spats fail to feed one hungry child, educate one needy student or inspire the nation's population to its better selves. Those make the to-do list for all of us to act on at King Day and in the days following.