Emmett Till should be here still

Emmett Till would, and should, be celebrating his eighty-second birthday today - just a little older than my mom and dad, whom I'll be traveling to see very soon.

Till, visiting family from his home in Chicago, was murdered in the small town of Money, Mississippi, by folks who "take care of their own."

The purpose of the murder was vengeance against Till for having the temerity to exist and to breathe the same air as the very white, very upstanding, very small-town people of Money. It was also a warning to anyone else who looked like Till that they'd better not try that in a small town where people "take care of their own" and define "their own" in the most appalling of ways.

So, pause for a moment today and wonder how many children Emmett would have brought into this world, how many grandbabies. Pause to look into his beautiful, soft eyes and wonder if he'd have been an engineer, or a teacher, or an artist, or a soldier, or a doctor, or a dancer. Think about how folks for whom "taking care of their own" has always meant - and still means - extrajudicial murder with their grandaddies' guns, their good-old-boy fists, and their hate.

Pause and understand that we've gotta be better than that - and that fight for the soul of the nation still rages and burns. Then choose the right damn side.

Love to the memory of Emmett Till, his family, and to you all.