Cary Clack, an Express-News Editorial Writer and Columnist, was the keynote speaker for the 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. March. Read his full biography here. Watch the San Antonio Express-News video of the keynote address below:  

By Cary Clack, originally published in Folo Media Twelve years, three months and 30 days. That was the length of Martin Luther King Jr.’s public life. From Montgomery to Memphis. From boycott to balcony. Twelve years, three months and 30 days.

To be an American is not a talent. It's not a craft or skill discovered and manifested early in life that is honed and mastered so that we perform with pride as others marvel at this singular talent. We didn't will ourselves into existence or align the stars and our bloodlines in our favor so that we would be born in the United States. When we say that we're proud to be an American it should be with the acknowledgement that everyone should be proud of his or her birthright.

Welcome to a special edition of the Edge. Many of us are looking for guidance on how to move forward after the tragedies last week: The cowardly ambush that killed five police officers in Dallas, and the police shootings in the days before that killed two black men, Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

In my house is a painting of one artist’s depiction of Jesus, which I bought years ago on the South Side. I give it extra attention during Holy Week and the celebration of Easter, a special day that is on a different date each year and is commercially symbolized by a giant rabbit carrying a basket of brightly colored hard-boiled eggs it hides from children. It’s a beautiful painting that’s sparked conversations and comments from people who’ve seen it because the Jesus in the painting is black. He looks like the late, great singer-songwriter Nickolas Ashford.

The church sits on the corner of Mesquite and North Center streets. Since 1922, its front door has faced west, toward a downtown San Antonio where its members were long denied access to the halls of power and only allowed to enter and shop in its stores in humiliating Jim Crow fashion.

There is no position in the United States government called “Secretary of Next.” The Founding Fathers had little or no use for the word “next.” The Constitution they created is a real time manual delegating and explaining powers for those in office. It doesn’t instruct officeholders to not use a power until a successor, the next one, is sworn in.

Barack Obama is a citizen born and raised in the United States of America. It says so much about our nation, good and bad, that he now enters the last year of his presidency, yet 1 in 5 of his fellow Americans don’t believe the preceding sentence. At noon, on Jan. 20, 2017, a hand will be placed on a treasured Bible of personal or historic significance and the 45th president of the United States will be sworn in. He or she will assume our nation’s highest elected berth without any suspicions as to place of birth.

That Americans have been sending bottled water to a people in desperate need is no surprise. We are a generous people who are often quick and eager to respond to a crisis. Whether it’s an earthquake in Haiti, a tsunami in Japan or flooding here at home, those hurt by such tragedies can expect assistance from the people of the United States.

Catch up and get ahead with the EDGE for the week of Jan. 18, 2016 Affordable Care Act Enrollment Closing There’s an important deadline coming up and if you miss it, it could cost you. The window is open until Jan. 31 to enroll in or change your health insurance under the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.