Today is one of the most important benchmarks in the American calendar, the Martin Luther King federal holiday. It’s especially important this year, the 50th anniversary of King’s famous “I Have a Dream!

” speech.

Yet in America over the past year King’s dreams have retreated into the fog of self-righteousness. His detractors, America’s Right, has rolled back many of the voting freedoms he had fought for a half century ago, assisted by a conservative if vindictive Supreme Court.

And King’s supporters seem to have hunkered down and conceded defeat. As America wiggles slowly out of a Great Recession there is less and less stomach for fighting.

And this seems true around the world. In Africa the “Arab Spring” and “Twevolution” are fizzling out.

African dictators are on the ascent, again. Oppressive laws are raising their ugly heads.

Africa, and America, are weary. War weary and poor weary.

Dr. King is ascribed in history — like Ghandi — as a champion of non-violence. But what I most remember of King’s turbulent last days was unbelievable violence. My most vivid memory is as a very young journalist penned under a burning El Stop in downtown Chicago while the city raged in reaction to King’s assassination.

I remember gun fire was a regular sound in my low-rent apartment in Washington, D.C. during the summer of 1968. Or the unending sirens and tear gas around my apartment in Berkeley that fall.

Those days ended in victory for my side. The Vietnam War came to an end. Civil Rights and Voting Rights leaped forward. There is much violence in America, today, but it seems to occur without a cause.

Gun violence in America is horrific, today. While the number of households with guns has been declining, the actual number of guns has been skyrocketing. There are now almost a quarter billion guns in private citizen hands and countless murders daily.

This is not what Dr. King had in mind. So today we celebrate his 85th birthday, wishing sorely that he were still here to explain.

Snow, snow and more snow throughout this wintry Christmas week! When the skies clear, often at sunrise or sunset, there are some beautiful scenes. And with snow plows working over time, we’ve been able to move around a lot.

Very cold and lots of snow this Christmas week! But remarkably and especially in the early morning around sunrise (0730h) all the wonderful hues break out of the blazing whiteness. Oak trees and old leaves on other trees look red.

Temperatures dropped in my forest last night to -9F (-23C). It’s remarkable how all the animals and birds survive, especially the smaller ones like the ground squirrel. But even in this bitter cold the forest provides berries and other food for a variety of animals and birds.

Today begins the Christmas Week, and at my home we just had very heavy snow. That followed a couple days where we couldn’t even leave our houses, because freezing rain had layered the earth with ice. It’s a beautiful site, now! Americans of all persuasions will likely work little this week, although only Wednesday is an official national holiday.

Today is Columbus Day in the United States, a federal holiday.

“Columbus Day” for my African readers has always perplexed them. After all, we know that Columbus didn’t land in America, but in the West Indies. So it absolutely strikes non-Americans as a fickle holiday in a country that’s known to not have many.

This year, though, it has special meaning. We in America normally take long weekend breaks much deserved and anticipated around days like this. For those of us living in The North it’s always a beautiful time as the trees change color and the frost of winter appears on our morning windows.

But this year we aren’t relaxing a bit: Americans are glued to their TVs and radios anxiously wondering if our elected leaders will keep us from the abyss of complete financial collapse … due Thursday.

All but a handful of states suspend many elective services, schools are closed, all banks in all states must be closed, and there’s no mail delivery. The holiday was proclaimed in 1937 on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus into the Americas. So this year, with so much of the federal government also closed, America is really chilling out.

Many large cities, including New York, have huge parades. Over the years the celebration has taken on an ethnic tone, celebrating Italian heritage.

Many of us would normally take short road trips to country house BnB’s and tiny towns further north to enjoy the fall colors.

But this year the only color we see is red. The country is angry, today.