Monday, January 17, 2011

Martin Luther King Day 2011. Free At Last?

mlk

Has The Dream come to fruition? Is it even close?

From Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” Speech:

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."

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!"

Today we still see inner city kids held back in terms of wages, educational and job opportunities. One USA politician is trying to turn back school integration to what it was in the 50’s.

Hatred and prejudice now includes the Hispanic and gay and lesbian populations. We are seeing promising kids being thrown out of school in Arizona simply because their parents are “illegal” residents of the USA. We see hateful legislation passed that allows the police to profile Hispanics and to question them for no other reason than “Breathing While Hispanic”.

We see gay or perceived gay students of all ages driven to suicide by bullying from their peers. We see legislators refusing to allow sexual orientation being added to existing anti-bullying and hate Legislation. We see same sex marriage under attack all over the country. We see mindless hatred!

Read Martin Luther King’s speech and see if you think we have come very far along the road to equality.

Has The Dream come to fruition? Is it even close? Is there less hatred today than there was then?

6 comments:

  1. Croft
    Add to the list the often forgotten American Indian (Native Americans). To this day they have not assimilated in society and are identified with reservations - slices of land they were relegated to. I understand the rationale that we shouldn't be responsible for the past "sins of our fathers," however it should never be forgotten how, as a nation, we committed genocide, often under the misguided "manifest destiny." It cannot be denied that as a nation we broke most every treaty. Time has healed most of the wounds, but it has also left us an excuse to forget.

    Your comments are timely and are consistent with the day - to cause us to remember our past and do our best to treat ALL others as equals.

    Bill in NE

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  2. I couldn't agree more Bill! Our native brothers must be included. Thanks for pointing this out.

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  3. As long as people hold to the premise that skin colour, wealth, and privilege trump all, nothing will ever change.

    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Anonymous

    ~ Rob

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  4. It's a good thing to try to be as kind as you can to your fellow man, regardless of age, race, religion or sexual orientation.
    Sadly this isn't the case everywhere.

    I fear it will take a very long time for the balance to shift.

    sad.

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  5. As much as I hate to say it, I think it is more tolerance than acceptance that has advanced. A real shame to think we are all human beings yet judged by many other factors.

    Too bad we can't follow the rest of nature, but I think some humans because of religion think they are apart from the rest of nature.

    Still a long row to hoe.

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  6. Interesting point Chris. Tolerance vs. acceptance. I had not looked at it like that.

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