In his famous letter from the Birmingham jail where he was arrested for demonstrating against segregation, Dr. King wrote, "I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. ... Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."

Surely the global devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates once more the truth of Dr. King's insight. The pandemic grew from open markets in the poor neighborhoods of China on the other side of the world. The perils faced by the impoverished there became a deadly threat to people across the globe.

No wall can stop a pandemic. Commerce - trade - demands travel and exchange. The world is inextricably linked. Trump brags about acting quickly to stop people coming in from China, but then we learn that 400,000 came into the U.S. from China despite the order.

In this country, the pandemic will leave hundreds of thousands dead and the economy in depression. It is extreme - but it is not unique. If anything, it is a warning, a fire bell in the night raising the alarm about what is to come. The effects of catastrophic climate change already savage the world. Australia and California burning; Houston and Puerto Rico pounded by storms; the Midwest flooded; drought spreading across the Middle East, rising seas threatening coastlines across the world. No wall can stop this existential threat. It will continue to wreak ever more damage even if the world finally wakes up to end its suicidal addiction to fossil fuels.

The United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but we are suffering more deaths and illnesses from the pandemic than any other nation. Why have we fared so poorly in the face of this global threat? Much of the media understandably focuses on Donald Trump's failings: his early refusal to pay attention to scientists who were warning what was coming, his chaotically mixed signals, his unwillingness or inability to define and implement a coherent federal strategy on everything from the acquisition and distribution of vital medical equipment to the imposition of stay-at-home orders across the country.

Yes, Trump has failed badly. Yet the failure is far greater than his alone. For years, the United States has short-changed its public health needs. Conservatives scorn government service, and slash government budgets - except those for the military. Establishment Democrats have joined in embracing austerity budgets, more willing to cut public provision than to impose fair taxes to pay for what we need.

Trump - under the banner of draining the swamp - has been particularly corrosive to public capacity, implanting corporate lobbyists to head agencies that they fleece, boasting about rolling back regulations and cutting employment, scorning public employees, outsourcing key capacities.

Now, in the emergency, the president and Congress pump out trillions to save the economy, to limit the damage, while scrambling to provide basic health needs. The president praises the courage of the doctors, nurses, hospital workers and others on the front lines, not acknowledging or blaming others that their lines are depleted, their equipment dated and inadequate, their supplies short.

The lack of government capacity costs big-time. Small businesses, on average, have only a couple of weeks of cash on hand. But the Small Business Administration, hollowed out over the years, lacks the capacity to get aid to them in a timely fashion. The IRS has been short-staffed for years. The poor and low-wage workers most in need will be the last to receive the aid checks that the Congress has authorized. Unemployment offices burdened with dated equipment and elaborate forms to discourage applicants are simply overwhelmed when 10 million apply for unemployment in two weeks.

Food banks are overwhelmed; the most vulnerable are at the greatest risk. In contrast, the big corporations and big banks deal directly with the Federal Reserve, which, operating independently, pumps out literally trillions to bail them out immediately. Democrats and Republicans join in lavishing more funds on the Pentagon, but the military has no answers to the pandemic or to climate change.

Will we learn from the horrors of the pandemic? Will citizens learn once more the stake we all have in capable public employees, in strong and efficient administration, in well-funded public provision? Will we understand the importance of public health? Will we learn that we can't protect our own health without protecting the health of the poor, the aged, the weak?

Washington is now scrambling to meet the crisis and arguing about what is needed to revive the economy. But a return to business as usual won't get it done - and may not even be possible. We need a dramatic change in priorities and in values. Building walls offers no solution.

Now sobered by these horrors, we must join one another to create the change we need. As Dr. King taught us, "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. ... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals." Once the pandemic passes, people of conscience must step up.

You can write to the Rev. Jesse Jackson in care of this newspaper or by email at jjackson@rainbowpush.org. Follow him on Twitter @RevJJackson.