On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his legacy

Today as I write this, it’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It is the 25th observance of this particular holiday. This is a semi-official holiday, in that the banks, schools, and the government have shut down for the day.

For the rest of us, it’s business as usual. If you’re blessed to have a job outside the above listed...you’re working. I’m working today, and so is my wife. (She’s still only working part-time--she’s not totally healed from surgery--but she’s working today.) 

Somehow, I think the late Dr. King would not be pleased with this. Today of all days, we should take a look at where we are and how far we’ve come.

Except we won’t. But not for the reasons some might give. I see things a bit differently.

There’s still perception problems, I’ll grant you. There is still inequality. But some of that has come back--boomeranged, if you will--to the white male.

Women’s rights have advanced tremendously over the last 25 years, since the first marking of this holiday. African-Americans (or people of color, according to the NAACP person on the radio this morning) have also come quite a ways in the last 30 years.

Meantime, white men are shown on TV and movies to be drunkards, womanizers, and total clods more interested in beer, sports, and certain portions of the female anatomy than anything else. They are shown to be pathetic in their attempts to be hip and/or cool. They can’t parent well, leaving that task to the incredibly super-competent women in their lives. Many of them don’t seem to work hard, if at all. 

I could speak of some stereotyping among the white community as well, looking at people of color. I won’t, however, because that is not what I read when I read Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech.

Let’s take a good look at part of this: 

“Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

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."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

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.

What Dr. King envisioned was a place and a time where all people-regardless of their race, color, or gender-could sit down together as the intelligent people God created us to be at the table of fellowship. Not one stereotyping the other, not one trying to be superior to another, but as equal, intelligent children of God, each doing what God called them to do, each fulfilling their unique, God-created role for their individual lives.

In short--to live as equal brothers and sisters, if not in total harmony, at least with charity and understanding. That is his legacy we should stop and consider this day. Not necessarily the man himself...but what his dream was, what he died trying to see the fruit of. Yes, we have come a long way. 

But...there is still so much to do, all the way around. 

Enough for now.

A few thoughts over Memorial Day

It’s Memorial Day weekend. I have a lot of things to be thankful for. (So do you, for all that.) Many brave men and women have died--and many more have served our country through our Armed Forces--to secure our rights and liberties. This includes the right of free speech, which I will warn you, I am about to exercise rather vigorously.

Since this is blog is probably being read and monitored somewhere by some soulless, nameless bureaucrat because of my beliefs, then Uncle Sam, please mark my file as follows: "Right-wing, conservative male with occasional liberal leanings. In fact, I am white, male, conservative, Republican, straight, still married to my first wife--a woman I love and respect--and I am Christian above all. I work for a Bible School, and have serious Christian beliefs. I read my Bible and the daily news, just because I can. My beliefs shape my vote, not dictate it. I drive an import, because Detroit hasn’t made a decent car since the Dodge Gold Duster--and isn’t likely to anytime soon just because you asked them to. I voted for John McCain in the last election, and in fact have voted Republican in every election since 1984. I'm white, not "Euro-American"...please. I feel that cutting the Fine Arts in our schools is a crime. Music and Art and Drama are required to be well-rounded citizens. I also feel that vouchers for school should be the law of the land. I do not care for Nancy Pelosi, Al Franken, Joe Biden or Left-wing radicals. I don’t watch much basketball, golf, or NASCAR. I am a Navy vet, with Naval Anniversary medal and Cold War victory medal. I do not own, nor do I want, a gun. I am sick and tired of everything having to be “green.” I listen to Praise and Worship music, Southern Gospel music, and worship the Lord God Almighty and His Son, Jesus Christ. I have been in attendance at five Promise Keeper events-with my wife’s blessings. I own cats, and do not care for most dogs. I do not trust Richard Geithner OR the Office of Homeland Security. I want less government, a truly free-market system with reasonable checks and balances, and a flat-rate income tax. I want the government out of the education business, except to fund college educations, and believe that those paying student loans should have their loans forgiven after five or six years of repayment. I want every teenager, at high school graduation or age 18 if they’ve dropped out, to enroll in a branch of the military for a minimum four year hitch, to assist in paying for said education. I suspect I have an IQ higher than than the President, VP and the Secretary of State...combined. I believe in free speech and a free press, but I also advocate returning to the Family Hour(s) on TV...including all cable channels. I see premarital and extramarital sex as being wrong, and so I'm not in favor of abortions either here or overseas. In fact, we have no business telling other countries how to handle the abortion issue at all. We should be stressing control of our hormones and abstinence; after all, our parents could control themselves as teenagers. We need to control, if not end, porn and gambling on the internet. The Wall Street bailout, credit relief plan, and TARP are all wrong. People being responsible for their own actions, including paying their bills, is what made America strong in the first place. The government running Bank of America, Citibank, GM and AIG is A Bad Thing. It is worse if you insist on running them like you have Amtrak, the USPS, the VA and NASA. I am more than a social security number...I am a free person. I am also a thinking man, and therefore you should probably consider me dangerous. I do not play well with others, and I refuse to conform to the values of this world."

Happy Memorial Day. Say thanks to a vet this weekend.

Enough for now.

(Posted 5/23/09)