At one end, Martin Luther King Day on January 16, celebrating a man who fought to raise black Americans to a place of equality, and fought, oblivious to personal cost, for civil, and human rights. Dr King has become the emblem for unity. A man who was determined to level walls of hate and injustice.

Four days later, today, the presidential inauguration of a man who has spilt the nation down lines of hatred, disrespect and intolerance. The day after, people will be marching in Washington DC, and across the world, in solidarity, against the newly politically baptised leader of the free world.

If it is still free.

Many pundits and civilians have suggested this moment in time echoes an American period of eruptive change, the 1960s, when action ignited the move toward societal reforms.

Is there solace in the fact that from those turbulent times, change did happen; when tolerance and acceptance was born in a more rapid sense than ever before? One might take heart such a groundswell of discontent across race and gender, could be the catalyst for another transformative wave.

Except, we have been here before. At least in 1968, a presidential candidate could not have found support if they publicly spoke in a brash. disrespectful way about women.

A disabled person mocked openly would have been seen in bad taste. It was a time when even conservatives realised there was a bird in the air, and black America was justifiably roaring toward long-delayed equality. Dr King put himself in the line of fire for change – change for not just African Americans, but those treated with contempt. and inequity.

A person might wonder what Dr King sacrificed his life for, when the world is swearing in a global leadership team which has already generated a level of discord, by its lack of empathy and ideals, coloured by personal investment and opinion. All for a man who would never put himself in the crosshairs to stand up for human rights. 

But America is standing up to fight again. And the trickle-down from this Trump presidency, be it all four years, or an abbreviated term interrupted by scandal, should not become the benchmark. The world does not have another 50 years to climb that same long mountain – and anyway, we were not even close to the summit.