"We have no right to be discouraged"

Many of you have probably already read that Coretta Scott King has died at the age of 78.

Young, (a minister in the United Church of Christ) who was a former civil rights activist and was close to the King family, told NBC's "Today" show: "I understand that she was asleep last night and her daughter went in to wake her up and she was not able to and so she quietly slipped away. Her spirit will remain with us just as her husband's has."

For anyone who missed this when I first posted it, here is an excerpt from Howard Dean's speech at St. Stephen's Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri on Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year:

"It's discouraging because it seems so hard to make progress," Dean said. "People say, 'Where is the Democratic Party? Where is our message?'"

No matter how bad conditions become, Dean warned, pessimism is not an option.

"We have no right to be discouraged," Dean said. "Dr. King went to jail. He and his people were beaten. Think of what he felt in that Birmingham jail writing those letters. He was looking at a whole country that needed to be woken up."

I balked when I first read those words. With so many of our rights under attack these days, couldn't we please keep our right to be discouraged? I don't think it's asking that much.

But in the end, I must admit that Howard Dean is right. Again.

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