Welcome to the beat everyone, I'm Ari Melbure, and on this Monday, many are marking today's

holiday, which honors Dr. Martin Luther King.

You can see the wreath laying at the King Monument at the National Mall, gatherings and places

from Colorado to Texas, and President Biden making it clear that he does not see today

or our work as only about commemorating some past history, but a test for right now, a test

for all of us, for how America faces the rising hate and today's problems not just yesterdays,

and how we deal with what we know is the original sin of racism and racial strife, all of

it's supersized in some ways for this MAGA era.

We face another inflection point in our nation's history.

One that's going to determine what this country looks like several decades from now.

When we choose democracy over autocracy or community over chaos, love or hate, these

are the questions of our time, and that Dr. King's life and legacy in my view, show us

the way forward.

Biden speaking, an event hosted by Reverend Sharpton, the civil rights leader and our MSNBC

colleague, which came after Biden was the first sitting president ever to deliver the

Sunday sermon at Dr. King's Atlanta Church, and that of course has been a place that if

you follow news and politics, you may know it's been back in the news because of its current

role the church led by Reverend Raphael Warnoch, now the twice elected United States Senator

and first ever Black Senator from Georgia.

So plenty of symbolism hanging over that appearance yesterday.

Warnoch's election is relevant today in other ways.

If the kind of electoral breakthrough that Dr. King was fighting for, it's one that many

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