I Have a Dream, Too

But before that dream is realized, we've got to stop miseducating kids at every turn. What do I mean? Take what your kids are learning today about Martin Luther King and the principles of American freedom.

They learn that "civil rights are the freedoms and rights that a person has as a member of a community, state or nation." That's what Scholastic magazine, distributed through schools all over the country, published four years ago. "In the U.S., these rights are guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution and acts of Congress."

That is not true. Civil rights, America's founders taught us so well, are God-given, unalienable rights. They don't descend from government. They are not given out through acts of Congress. They cannot be invented by man. They are inherent, universal, permanent.

This is such a foundational point of understanding American civic life, history and government that it cannot be a simple mistake by an educational publisher. This is deliberate brainwashing – an example of the dumbing-down process we hear so much about in government schools. What these institutions produce are not educated students so much as spare parts for a giant statist-corporate matrix called America.

As if to underline the point, the Scholastic article writer added: "Since the 1960s, many laws have been passed to guarantee civil rights to all Americans. But the struggle continues. Today, not only blacks, but many other groups – including women, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, people with disabilities, homosexuals, the homeless and other minorities – are waging civil-rights campaigns."

If Scholastic is correct about rights simply being extended by legislative decree, then rights can be taken away as easily as they are bestowed. Those are not rights, folks. Those are privileges.

Notice the subtle way the struggle by blacks is equated with agitation by "the homeless" and homosexuals. This is Marxist Indoctrination 101. I know, I used to use such techniques myself. But now it is thoroughly permeating not just academia, but elementary schools and private educational companies that must sell their products to the government educational monopoly.

"Most people agree that decent housing is a basic right," the article continues. "Yet millions of Americans live in substandard housing – or have no housing at all. They live that way because they cannot afford better – or are kept out of better housing by discrimination (unfair treatment)."

Oh, really? That strikes me as a pretty strong statement to make without citing any evidence. "Most people agree that decent housing is a basic right." Hmmm. I would challenge that supposition. Even in America's advanced case of intellectual, moral and cultural decay, I don't believe a majority would now say that decent housing is a basic right. At least I hope not.

But, even if some poll showed that the statement might be technically true, I have to add a big, "So what?" Who cares what people think about rights? It doesn't matter. Once again, rights – true rights – descend from God and cannot be given to man by anyone else nor taken away.

We also learn from Scholastic materials that King got his ideas for peaceful resistance from two sources – Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau. Gee, you know, I don't deny that those folks were influences on King, but to ignore King's inspiration from the Bible is ludicrous.

After all, it was Jesus who taught us – Gandhi and Thoreau included – about loving your enemy and "turning the other cheek."

Ah, but then, of course, you have the old sticky wicket of religion in the classroom. Better to simply ignore reality – the truth that Martin Luther King was a Christian minister. I have a feeling that not many kids in government school will hear this part of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.

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"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

"This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

"This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, 'My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'

"And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

"Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"

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Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom. That was the King message. Martin Luther King talked a lot more about freedom than he did rights. He was clear on where true freedom and rights came from. That distinction has been obliterated in today's teaching about him.

Why? Because freedom cannot be controlled by government. Government would prefer to define the limits of your freedom by arbitrarily creating new "rights" and disabusing us of the notion that rights are God's unalienable gifts to all humanity.

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Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated column originates at WorldNetDaily, where he serves as editor and chief executive officer. If you would like to see the column in your local newspaper, contact your local editor. Tell your paper the column is available through Creators Syndicate.

I have a feeling that not many kids in government school will hear this part of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.

Of course you can't. The King family will not allow any use of this speech (or any other MLK speech) unless you pay big bucks. That is why it has been used in corporate commercials but is not available for "public" use. The funny thing is that in a generation, even black children will say "Martin Luther King who?" because they will have never heard his speeches...

I agree with the thrust. But as this generation ages and the new "indoctrinated" one takes over and becomes more numerous, the finer points about "inalienable rights" versus the gift of "civil rights" will be lost. Already to a large number of people, housing is a "right", "affordable health care" is a right[heard whenever any spending program is proposed that is against the left's agenda].
Sadly, the chilrun know no better, do not have the tools with which to educate themselves to know better, and we who try to teach them are called "bigots" or told that the world has changed and our way of thinking isn't right anymore. Just try teaching that the individual is more important than the group and watch the little socialists howl.
We have lost folks.
This game is about over.
In the next generation, you will see the ascendency of the UN, the acceptance of the idea that wealth is distributed and not earned by individuals but exists for the benefit of all and that the heroes who made this country were evil vicious oppressors of women and minorities and should be forgotten and cursed.
Its happening now of course, but there are plenty of us to cry "Foul!". But we will be eventually overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the dumbed down.

children will say "Martin Luther King who?" because they will have never heard his speeches...

Not true. They will know his name. But they will not hear his words. They will associate his name with con artists like Jessuh Zhacksuhn. The man as an icon will be retained, but the message will be deformed into that of the totalitarian agenda.

Today, not only blacks, but many other groups – including women, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, people with disabilities, homosexuals, the homeless and other minorities – are waging civil-rights campaigns."

So... if I connect the dots properly it means that white men are at the root of the problem! 'Publik Screwling' pays off afterall!

"In the U.S., these rights are guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution and acts of Congress." That is not true.

Hmm. Depends on how you intrepret "guarantee". Our civil rights are granted by God, as recognized in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, ...

But history tells us that very often, people have not actually enjoyed the free exercise of these rights. So, again according to the DoI:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, ....

So, is the "guarantee" the endowment of these rights, or the securing of them? God does the former, and governments are established for the latter.

"Since the 1960s, many laws have been passed to guarantee civil rights to all Americans. But the struggle continues. Today, not only blacks, but many other groups – including women, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, people with disabilities, homosexuals, the homeless and other minorities – are waging civil-rights campaigns."

The author objects to the wording of this letter. But, if you think about it, it's quite accurate. The groups mentioned here ARE waging civil-rights campaigns. They are waging campaigns to have certain rights that they want recognized as "civil rights". So the statement is accurate. Whether those campaigns should succeed is another question.

What I meant to finish in my last post before I hit "Post" too quickly was that here's an example where rhetoric is being used to deceive. By calling a right a "civil right", you create the presumption that the right should be granted and that those who oppose it are bigots. It cuts off the debate of whether the right under discussion should be considered a "civil right" to begin with.

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