Editorial: We've made progress on King's dream but still must admit how far from it we remain

Had he not been murdered on the balcony of a Memphis motel, Martin Luther King Jr. would have just turned 91 last week.

Who knows where 51 more years of life would have taken him, what impact it would have had on America, how much good he could have done with that time, how much justice he could have helped to produce, how much racial harmony we might have been able to achieve.

Because of an assassin's bullet, all of this is now sadly just anybody's guess. No one could say for certain. But surely, were he alive to witness America today, he would be disappointed by how far from the expanse of his dream we still have yet to travel. Not only did he not get to the Promised Land with us, but we haven't gotten there either.

That said, there is no doubt that America has witnessed great racial progress since the days of King's youth. Great progress. Sanctioned segregation has ended. Many doors to opportunity have been unlocked and opened. Overt racism is no longer popularly embraced or widely promoted.

We've come a long way.

But the divisions in our country remain and they run deep. The life that an African American born today can expect is vastly more challenging than the life a white American can expect. There remains great income inequality, great disparity in life expectancy, in prospects for prison, in economic opportunity.

Simply, there are great disadvantages for some of us that are built into our culture, great privilege for others of us that is hard oftentimes to recognize. Look out on the communities of America today and you cannot help but still see a great divide.

On the day before the annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, let's congratulate ourselves on how far we've come, but let's commit ourselves at the same time to how much farther we have to go. Let's start by recognizing how much farther we have to go.

Today is a day, as we said in this space in 2012, to take a moment. Today, we learn or relearn the minister's lessons. Today, we take a step toward creating the community we wish Dr. King to see.

Let us renew our commitment to greater ideals. Let us dream again.

Let us recognize again that his dream is one that is woven with threads of hope and love.

Let us reflect again today on Dr. King's 1954 sermon, "Transformed Noncomformist."

"O how many people today are caught in the shackles of the crowd ... But my friends, it is the nonconformists that have made history ... not those who are afraid to say no when everyone else is saying yes.

"Who this afternoon will go away with the determination not to be a slave to the crowd and not to bow to the desires of the mob?"

Who, may we ask, will dare to dream?