No red flags

 Sixty years ago today Martin Luther King, Jr., stood in front of a statue of Abraham Lincoln and said he hoped for a world free of racism, where his children would be judged by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin.  And of course yesterday a white man chose the eve of this anniversary to show that we have made no real progress.  Denied entrance to the historically Black Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, he drove to a store and murdered three Black people chosen at random, with an assault weapon and a handgun he had purchased legally.  (We are always assured of the legality of the purchase, as if it matters.)  At least one was decorated with a swastika.  

This being Florida, the governor pledged a million dollars for beefing up security at Edward Waters, although it seems as if their security is fine; it's Dollar Store that could use a SWAT team.  Yesterday he got an unfriendly reception at a prayer vigil from people who remember his efforts to make it easier to carry a concealed weapon with no permit; his administration's assault on AP African American studies; his suggestion that slavery was actually a sort of job training program; and because he's basically a creep, as audiences across the country have seen up close.  With his customary eloquence he described the killer as "a major-league scumbag" who didn't realize that Florida has no patience with racism.  Nobody laughed.  The county sheriff, T.K. Waters, said the killer, who wasn't born when King spoke, raised "no red flags" because he hadn't killed anyone before.  Sheriff Waters is a Black man.  That at least might have pleased King, if only as a symbol of change.

Jacksonville was preparing for a very different commemoration.  On August 27, 1960, a mob attacked students protesting segregation at a lunch counter.  At first police did nothing; then they joined in the assault.  Several Black people were arrested.  No whites were.  Axe Handle Saturday is not nationally celebrated like the March on Washington, but Jacksonville has not forgotten, and now there is another reason to remember.   

Of course the murderer left a manifesto, which he called "Diary of a Madman" because he couldn't be bothered with an original title.  Of course he killed himself, like his hero Hitler (I'm guessing from the swastika.)  His name doesn't matter.  His victims are Angela Michelle Carr, 52; A.J. Laguerre, 19; and Jerrald Gallion, 29.