I saw a newspaper article today asking if Martin Luther King’s vision had been achieved. They polled different ethnicities and 2/3 of African Americans felt it had and a smaller percentage of whites felt it had. But I think we need to face it – Martin Luther Kings vision was not just for black people. It was for all people.
We’re getting there. We have traveled very far since 1963 and we are better for it. We have achieved milestones along the way, including the election of Barak Obama. But when we need to ask “are we there?” we have to know we are not – when we get there, we will not be asking ourselves have we made it. We won’t recall that it is an issue we need to deal with. Our interaction with each other will be free of discrimination.
There is discrimination in many facets of our society – between classes, in politics, in ideology, in religion. Until our society can stop celebrating difference as a way to exclude, we cannot be there.
In 2009, race is much less of an issue for us. Hallelujah! That deserves recognition. Let’s keep going. Let’s learn how we can unify through the idea of not only tolerance, but acceptance that others are different. Let’s celebrate difference as everyman’s privilege to be unique, to choose, to eat, with the understanding and caveat that personal belief should not be forced on others and shared only when invited.
I have a dream…
http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
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 when this happens, when we allow freedom to 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!" – MLK, 8/28/1963
We’re getting there. We have traveled very far since 1963 and we are better for it. We have achieved milestones along the way, including the election of Barak Obama. But when we need to ask “are we there?” we have to know we are not – when we get there, we will not be asking ourselves have we made it. We won’t recall that it is an issue we need to deal with. Our interaction with each other will be free of discrimination.
There is discrimination in many facets of our society – between classes, in politics, in ideology, in religion. Until our society can stop celebrating difference as a way to exclude, we cannot be there.
- We saw it recently in the form of discrimination against those who felt the war in Iraq was unjust.
- We see it in the saving of the middle class as a cause worth pursuing, but continue in ignorance or apathy in regard to of the plight of our own poor.
- We see discrimination in vilification of the wealthy as well.
- Some discriminate based on skin color still.
- Some discriminate on Religion (or a choice to forgo it – just look at Liz Dole’s attack against her political opponent, calling her an Atheist. )
In 2009, race is much less of an issue for us. Hallelujah! That deserves recognition. Let’s keep going. Let’s learn how we can unify through the idea of not only tolerance, but acceptance that others are different. Let’s celebrate difference as everyman’s privilege to be unique, to choose, to eat, with the understanding and caveat that personal belief should not be forced on others and shared only when invited.
I have a dream…
http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html
