He is most remembered today for his "I have a dream" speech, in which he powerfully spoke out that he dreamed of a day when all people would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. What more brilliant soundbyte could there be to express the dream that every loving, living, truly human being should yearn for? Fully four decades have passed since those dark days. He was struck down by a common bigot of the day, and many of us on both sides of the color line remember how a voice of reason was silenced, and how the cities burned. There were others of his race who came with guns, and anger, and bigotry as strong and as evil as the Klan at it's height. Those were days in which the segregated lunch counter or water fountain still existed, and racism was, if not fully legal, still treated as if it was.
As I have said, four decades have passed, and a new world exists. Where we had two black kids in my graduating class, today there are scores. We joke in our house that my teenage daughter has no black friends...she has friends (and many of them are black, or Oriental, or Jewish.) She goes to a magnet school where everyone of every races is getting good grades, because although they share "diversity" (that magic Liberal word) you have to test into the school by virtue of outstanding grades back in the regular public system. There is no racial backbiting...they don't have time to do it, even if race mattered to them, which it doesn't. Troublemakers or people with a chip on their shoulder usually fail out quickly because of the stiff grading and great expectations placed on each child. Involved parents of every race push their kids to get to work, and expect them to succeed. And because losers fail and leave, teachers can teach and not waste their time trying to be armed guards instead.
Point being, it is a different world today...for those who will live in today, work hard, and take their own future's into their hands. There are unlimited opportunities for children of every race and creed to become something great, and not just the faux-achievent "You're special just because you're you!" kind of great. The make a fortune by making the world better kind of great.
Sadly, I tell my daughter, outside those walls are a lot of places where people spend their lives making excuses for their poor grades by blaming their own failure on others. "The tests are too hard", or "They aren't culturally relavent", or at the worst the unspoken assumption that children of color who get really good grades are somehow "too white" to be true to their "culture." And when this is a cultural more, your culture is broken and worthless. When the people who are really respected are not scientists and captains of industry, not teachers or achievers, but are angry young men who are really good at rhyming the word "whore", your culture is broken.
As a Republican, I belive this is the best country on earth and in the history of the world. We have more wealth, better healthcare, and a better chance to go from penniless to Bill Gates rich than anywhere on earth. My belief is that whatever your skin color, you have the power within yourself to be great; to get a free education, to qualify for a good scholarship, to work hard and put yourself through college, to impress an employer with what you can do than anywhere else on earth. My Democratic friends believe that a person of color cannot possibly achieve greatness on their own, that they need the ongoing narcotic of the government handout to even get a bad job, and that the best way to help people strive, achieve, and become more that they are is to lower the bar until they hardly have to try to be better at all. I ask you, who respects you more? Someone who thinks you can take on the world, or someone who thinks you can't archive anything without someone making it easy for you and constantly paying you to think you're helpless?
I say as I have in the past: Here's my requirement to live in my neighborhood. Keep your house looking nice, and don't park run down cars all over the lawn. Don't do drugs. Go to work every day with the attitude that you are going to impress the world, and THEN over time, you will reap riches because you made your boss and company look good. Blame no-one but yourself if you fall short, and encourage the people around you when you do well. Marry your wife and love her, take an interest in your kids and expect them to be great, and love them when they occasionally fall short. Value your marriage, and work at it. Do these things, and I don't care if you are black, brown, green, Asian or Vulcan...I want you living next door to me.
Point being, I find myself, here in the early years of a grand new millennium, placed in the odd position of believing in Martin Luthor King's dream. Thousands marched back in the 60's for this dream. It was shouted from the rooftop, proclaimed in the pulpit, scribed on the written page. I look around me, forty years later, and I see my family is color-blind, as are most of my neighbors, as is most of the county. But sadly, there are those who actually make money on dredging up the old hatreds. There are those who make themselves rich while they keep fading hatreds alive. There are those who should be leading like King did, to show the last of the haters that people of every color are just people; and yet, to make a buck, they give the bigots power by keeping us apart, and hating each other. And with rare exceptions, I mourn to say, these people are the "leaders of the black community"; your Jessie Jacksons, your Al Sharptons, your "Reverand" Wrights.
I want to live my life judging any a man on the content of his character. But the Leftist Black leaders won't let me, because it is more profitable to call me a racist.
Excellent post. You mind if I forward it along to a couple of non-FReepers?