A Barometer, Not a Tribute

What a rural lawmaker’s MLK Day email reveals about power, protest, and state violence

My state senator, David Brock Smith, marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day, with an email. On its surface, it was polite, solemn, and familiar, an invocation of faith, freedom, public safety, and lawful change all in a whopping 147 words. But this wasn’t really about Dr. King at all. It was about something else entirely: how power explains itself in moments…