When I was a teenager, I watched Senator Edward Kennedy's speech at the 1980 Democratic Convention. He was conceding the nomination to President Carter, so - like lots of people - I thought he was talking about his own career when uttered the now-famous words I have borrowed for this diary's headline.
The events of the past few weeks, however, have changed that opinion. That great man from Massachusetts, the last of his brothers - a man to whom much was given and from whom much was taken - this man was talking about the quest for civil equality, a premise upon which this country was founded.
For Senator Kennedy, this meant health care for all, education, and end to poverty and - important for this diary - civil rights. And so - for me today - this quote means simply: The civil rights movement can and must continue until there are no more Ferguson's, no more choke holds, no more dead 12-year olds with toy guns, no more violent attacks on members of the LGBT community and no more demonizing of this nation's immigrants. But it's something bigger than that.
It's very easy for us all to decry personal racism. It's an awful thing when we encounter it: People who tell horrendous jokes that they think build them up by bringing an entire group of people down, or we see somebody eye a non-white person suspiciously, lean in with a whisper to their companion and then suddenly bolt to the other side of the street. The fear-behavior is bad enough, but when you see stories of the lunatic fringe of society arming themselves to the teeth and hiding in the hills, waiting for a race war that makes you wonder if humanity can ever overcome itself.
Personal racism is awful, but - in my opinion - institutional racism is even more insidious. Think of it this way: One person can certainly hurt another, but when a law, a business, or a culture is designed to intentionally keep an entire group from equal treatment, well that's when tragedies mount and are compounded. Institutional racism derives from personal racism, sure, but it also derives from a cynicism and elitism that believes that the strategy to "divide and conquer" will build a power base, whether that is in business or politics. In short, sometimes the racism is built in and either due to ignorance or cynicism, those in the system don't have the common sense or sensitivity to see the racism.
And so we come back to the civil rights movement. Throughout our history, this movement has had great impact and - as a society - we have made great strides. Thanks to the civil rights movement, America has managed to do away with slavery (OK, that took a war, too), grant voting rights for women, and remove public segregation from American life and legally require racial integration of government institutions. Thanks to the civil rights movement, there are laws on the books that prevent discrimination on almost every level of education, government, health care, commerce, etc.
We even see very recent civil rights strides for the GLBT community.
And yet, the fight must continue. Why? Because institutional racism still needs to be eradicated from both our legal system (from policing to the judicial process) and the Republican Party. These two are actually linked: The GOP prides itself and puts a large portion of its brand on being the law and order party. The institution racism within the party comes from the cynical strategy of politically attacking non-white and non-male populations in order to solidify a base of support, particularly in rural and inland communities. This implies a connection between the idea of the threat of social chaos (and crime) and loss of control with the rise of the economic power of urban, younger and minority populations.
It leaks into other GOP policy decisions too - like the strategy to pass voter ID laws that systematically disenfranchises minority voters and younger voters under the guise of preventing fraud. Why? Because thanks to a decades old strategy of "divide and conquer" the GOP base presumes that a black or brown person is far more likely to commit voter fraud than a white American. So this appeases their base, attempts to cut down on Democratic votes and the circle is closed.
But back to the main point, and enter the legal system: Nothing screams solid law and order better than a police department that shoots first and asks questions later. Their training is designed to make these conflicts more likely - they are taught to shoot to kill, to view any situation as one where they (the police) might not leave in one piece.
So the police kill an unarmed 18 year old who has his hands up, they choke a man to death who is already incapacitated and screaming, "I can't breathe," and they leap out of their car and shoot a 12 year old to death in less than a minute. Then they all run for cover under the guise of "I-was-in-fear-for-my-life."
Next you have the prosecutor. First, he or she needs the support of police in the vast majority of the cases prosecuted. They are on the same team to begin with, but that prosecutor probably fears that if he or she is seen as being anti-police, then this will impact their ability to get cooperation and testimony from police, and even control their behavior that brings admissible evidence into the courtroom. So the prosecutor treads too lightly, refuses to indict without a grand jury, and even lets the accused testify.
And the process that is designed so a prosecutor could get "a ham sandwich indicted" never indicts that cop. Over and over again. And the signal to the police is that they can get away with this bad behavior, so they continue it.
Even if there is an indictment, the laws in most jurisdictions are so broad in terms of the latitude they allow the enforcement unit that all a policeman has to say is that he was in fear for his life, and that is usually enough.
Finally, even if not one of the players involved is personally a racist - not the cop, not the prosecutor, not even a single member of the grand jury - the entire process is, and that is a text book definition of how institutional racism is so insidious.
So the institutional racism continues: Republican politics aggressively elevates the divide between minority and white communities with law and order issues at the forefront, the police brutalize and murder African-American boys and men, and the legal system lets them get away with it (while a large portion of the American population calls the police "America's Bravest" and looks at these young men and thinks, "they had it coming").
Solutions are already being talked about, and that's good, but here is where the cause endures: The Civil Rights Movement must keep the pressure on or there will be no remedy, no change, and no further move to equality and freedom. If there is no change as a result of these tragedies, then the tragedies will be unending and the voices and lives of Rev. Martin Luther King, the Kennedy brothers, and thousands of others who linked arms and shouted, "We Shall Not Be Moved," will have been all in vain.
The hope still lives and the dream shall never die. Let's show them that's still true.