While Oprah Winfrey led a delegation to commemorate the terrible segregation and brutality that existed in Selma, Alabama over 50 years ago, while rich white kids shut down a major highway in Boston to prove that Black Lives Matter, while Rev. Al Sharpton induced guilt in rich, white liberal Hollywood Academy Awards voters for not nominating the movie Selma in every major category, across the country, many black youths shot and killed many other black people during the past three-day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend.  Tragically, the following headlines from the Chicago Tribune over the past few days are similar to ones across the country, in big cities and small towns. 

Two charged in West Side shooting

Boy, 15, held on $2 million bail in Roseland teen's slaying

4 dead, 13 wounded in weekend shootings

Man shot to death in Gary on Sunday afternoon

There were more, but you get the idea.  Yes, yes, there were news items about murders and other crimes by those of other than African-American heritage, but a disproportionate number of the crime reports were about blacks both as criminal and as victim.  

The paper also highlighted this poignant plea to Santa Claus from a 13-year-old who sat next to Michelle Obama at the State of the Union speech last night.

A 13-year-old South Side boy who recently wrote to Santa Claus and asked for "safety" — not high-priced gifts — will be among first lady Michelle Obama's guests Tuesday at the State of the Union address, the White House said.

After seventh-grader Malik Bryant wrote to Santa, the letter was redirected to the White House by a nonprofit group, according to a White House official who asked not to be identified by name.

(snip)

"All I ask for is for safety. I just wanna be safe," the boy's letter concluded.

(snip)

Malik lives with his mother and two sisters, and he counts math as his favorite subject, the White House official said.

(snip)

Speaking to the Tribune, Bryant said his request emerged from the grim realities of his South Side neighborhood.

"It's just a lot of killings. It's really dangerous," he said. "I go outside, and I sit, and I fear a lot, because, you know, I don't want to be the next person."

Cynicism and presumed White House exploitation aside, a 13-year-old living in a major American city shouldn't be concerned about his safety, about being "the next person" to be shot at or even killed.  Indeed, no one should.

Chicago's mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), President Barack Obama (D)'s former chief of staff, understands young Malik's sad plea. 

Mayor Rahm Emanuel will deliver a campaign speech on public safety Tuesday, while two of his challengers try to get attention for their own policy initiatives.

Emanuel's talk at a community center in the Washington Park neighborhood will focus on his efforts to deal with one of the most vexing problems of his first term, the violent crime that has earned Chicago national notoriety in recent years both for the sheer volume of shootings and for a series of high profile killings of young people.

The mayor frequently calls public safety in Chicago's most violent neighborhoods a top priority.(snip)

Emanuel is trying to win back the support of Chicago's African-American voters who voted for him in large numbers in 2011, but who Tribune polling has shown have grown disenchanted with him in part because of the crime that hits many of their neighborhoods the hardest.

The "most violent neighborhoods" are black as are the innocent victims and the criminals "that hits many of their neighborhoods the hardest."

This is definitely not the stuff of King's dream.