By BARBARA HOWARD

As I listen to all the hateful rhetoric surrounding the inauguration of President- Elect Donald Trump scheduled for just 4 days after the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. official holiday, I am saddened by what I hear. I imagine Dr. King turning over in his grave. This is not what he fought and died for.

I was a teenager in segregated Alabama when Dr. King was thrust into the forefront of the Civil Rights’ fight. He wanted black folk to be able to fully participate in the political and economic success of this country. Dr. King protested against the unfair laws and practices of segregation and discrimination against us and he used the protest marches, sit-ins and boycotts to do it.

And now we see over 50 Democrats in Congress breaking tradition and boycotting Donald Trump’s inauguration, orchestrated in part by Congressman John Lewis, who has publicly stated that he doesn’t respect President-Elect Trump and considers him as being an illegitimate president.

Even worse, after Trump responded to John Lewis calling him illegitimate, he was trounced on for “disrespecting a Civil Rights’ Icon,” but I didn’t hear anyone saying how John Lewis was wrong for disrespecting Donald Trump as President-Elect.

Congressman Lewis stated that this would be the first time he would miss an inauguration, but he missed George W. Bush’s inauguration as well. For the record, just because John Lewis is a Civil Rights’ Icon doesn’t mean he is infallible. Remember

Democrats called Bush’s win illegitimate as well. They just can’t stand to lose.

So Democratic members of Congress are boycotting the Trump inauguration and 99 organizations are protesting – just because Hillary Clinton lost. How sad. How angry. How hateful.

Some of these protests are organized by Black Lives Matter, MoveOn.Org, Occupy Democrat (yes, there’s an Occupy Democrat organization), etc. and paid for by super-liberal George Soros’ multiple billions.

Then on top of that you have dozens of Hollywood entertainers and stars who not only refused to perform for the Trump inauguration, but are bullying performers who do want to perform.

For example, Jennifer Hudson wanted to perform, but was forced to back out. Why? The same reason that many black Republicans are afraid to publicly declare they are conservative. They get ridiculed, demeaned and bullied. So much for the party that preaches tolerance – that is tolerance for what they believe in, but intolerance for what conservatives believe in.

Martin Luther King would not approve. He was a Republican. His father was Republican. His niece, Dr. Alveda King is a Republican. While his eldest son, Martin Luther King III, is a Democrat, he met with President-Elect Trump on the MLK holiday and, in the tradition of Dr. King, talked about people getting along and focusing on the real problems of poverty, high-school drop-outs, etc.

I am really disappointed at how the Democrats treat Republicans with impunity. They call all Republicans racists, bigots, sexists, homophobes, misogynists, etc. They said it about Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and now Donald Trump. And every election, they get even angrier and more hateful.

I’ve heard some compare the protest marches of today by Black Lives Matter with the purity of the Civil Rights Movement and have called Dr. King a radical as opposed to one who preached the peaceful stance of the non-violent march.

At every Black Lives Matter protest, traffic is blocked and businesses are destroyed, broken into, burned down, and looted. News cameras catch thugs running away with electronics, liquor and various other items which should have been paid for. While the mantra for marches with Dr. King and other Civil Rights organizations like the Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.), of which I am a part, were the lyrics of “We Shall Overcome,” the mantra today is more like “Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon.” Worse yet, these marches today start after the shooting by police of black men usually engaged in criminal behavior, regardless of how minor. And in return, police are summarily gunned down, even while sitting in their patrol car.

Where is John Lewis’ anger now? Against Republican Trump, because he now belongs to the same political group who beat him down on the Edmund Pettus bridge on “Bloody Sunday,” almost 52 years ago.

For the record, not one Republican boycotted President Obama’s inauguration, neither in 2008, nor in 2012. They took their loss like adults and respected the office of the President of the United States, as tradition would have.

They put their country first.