By John Branston
Monday January 20, 2025, was a harmonic convergence as rare as a total eclipse.
Flags were at half staff atop tall buildings in San Francisco. Was the city President Trump loves to hate in the state he loves to hate giving the bird to his inauguration? Was it in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday? Or maybe Ohio State winning the national championship over God’s favorite, Notre Dame?
None of the above. Flags were lowered in respect to former President Jimmy Carter, who died a week earlier.
The King holiday made more sense to this visitor from Memphis. A downtown park has a shrine with his warning of the dangers of a “thing-oriented society” driven by machines, computers, and profit motives. How prescient. The park is an island of solitude among glittering skyscrapers, Waymo driverless cars, and some of the richest people in the world.
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John Branston covered Memphis as a reporter and columnist for 35 years.
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