by R. Pettiford
“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.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is now the year 2012 nearly 50 years after one of the greatest men in world history gave this powerful and nearly unprecedented speech to millions around the country and around the globe. But now the question remains, after all this time is that dream now a reality? I'd say no it's not at least no entirely. Though most people in America have moved past judgments based on race not all have, and some of the usual culprits may or may not shock you. Today we live in a culture as diverse as ever and with a gene pool so intertwined with the world's nationalities that we have no choice but to think of ourselves as one race, the human race. Even with these undeniable facts in mind we still have people of all colors, nationalities, and creeds who attempt to stoke the flames of racism. And surprisingly some of these people walked with and were taught directly by The Great Dr. King. One such person would be Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. He walked with, was taught by, and had an intimate relationship with the Great Dr. King and still has a skewed view of his vision. How is this so you may ask? I believe it is because Reverend Jackson has his own vision in mind that doesn't involve a “peaceful coexistence” between the African American Race and the rest of Society. Neither does Rev. Al Sharpton or The New Black Panther Party of course. To many, including many at the NAACP, this notion is obvious. But to others it is as true as Big Foot, and it's to those people that I pose the following thoughts: People and groups such as these make most of their publicity and money off of The Cause of Racism Without racism they are essentially irrelevant. (The more things seem to be racially motivated, the more relevant they are and money they make.) So if there are no racially motivated incidents happening and you are dying to remain relevant, what do you do? You either create an incident or take an already existing one and turn it int0 something that it isn't. I.e. The Martin/Zimmerman case in Florida. Where despite Zimmerman's background, record of service, and character , he is still being painted as a racist who chose a young black man to hunt down and murder in the suburbs. Now is this The Dream that Dr. King taught about, marched and fought for, died for? No it is not, and no reasonable explanation can describe it as being so. Dr. King would have looked at who Zimmerman is and who Trayvon Martin was and looked at all the facts and come to a reasonable conclusion based on facts and the truth. That's not what our “Black Leaders” did in this case they took speculation and media bias and turned an unfortunate tragedy into a racially motivated media feeding frenzy. I believe Dr. King would have spoken out about the series of shootings in Chicago that left 41 people shot and 10 people dead. But, where's the media on this situation, this is a civil rights violation and a human rights violation. But you see that's the key. That's what Dr. King fought for not just civil rights, but human rights, cause you see this great man truly believed as our founders did, that all men were created equal. His plight wasn't necessarily for Black People only, but for Mexicans, and Chinese, and Japanese, and Jews, and whites and all nationalities of this globe we all live on. Cause you see he believed in Love, Freedom, Acceptance, Caring, Tolerance, but most of all he Knew with all of his heart that there was, is, and always will be a God in Heaven who loves us, and that the best way to show him that we love, honor, and serve him is to take care of his children as he has taken care of us. We are all God's children and we should treat each other as if we were all Dr. King and love and respect one another, and become blind to the color of one another's skin and not use these subtle differences as tools to facilitate hate and envy. The Bible teaches us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. So we should not teach our kids to hate someone because they are a little bit different or for that matter hate anyone for any reason at all. We need to teach them the Biblical Principles given to us from Heaven above and maybe just maybe we can erase these travesties called racial discrimination and prejudice so that maybe just maybe our kids can live in a world where they won't have to live with such diseases. That is what Dr. King dreamed about.
R. Pettiford
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