I have a dream

This will come as no surprise that I'm a proponent of Affirmative Action. However, lest you think I believe in Affirmative Action because I'm some kind of fuzzy headed 60's flower child liberal do-gooder with more ideals than sense, be aware that my interest in Affirmative Action is purely selfish in nature.

It is my opinion that while this nation is one where most of the wealth and power is held in the hands of one race, and one race alone, it will never be great. It can never hope to be great. It will always limp along in its own blind self-image of greatness, smug in the belief that great power deserves great respect; yet most of the people of this world, and too many in this country, see the United States as the ultimate hypocrite -- the land that calls itself equal when it is anything but.
[more]

  thanks to PageCount

Bush's strategy of racial innuendo a telling and troubling sign

Today our nation comes together as one family to celebrate the life and the work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., America's greatest human rights advocate of the 20th century.

King sacrificed his life to tear down the political, legal, economic and social walls that divide us. Because of his sacrifice, our nation and our world are not the same as they were 30 years ago. The United States has become the most diverse, the most tolerant and the most accepting nation in the world. In the 35 years since King's death, we have made great strides toward his dream of a beloved community, a community that embraces the diversity of all people, a community at peace with itself.

Despite our progress, recent actions by our president and other national leaders are glaring reminders of how far we have to go to build a beloved community. Today, as we celebrate a man who sought to lead our nation so that he could unite it, we have a president who has been all too willing to divide our nation so that he can lead it.
[more]

  thanks to P.L.A. - A Journal of Politics, Law and Autism

The Martin Luther King You Don't See On TV

It's become a TV ritual: Every year in mid-January, around the time of Martin Luther King's birthday, we get perfunctory network news reports about "the slain civil rights leader."

The remarkable thing about this annual review of King's life is that several years -- his last years -- are totally missing, as if flushed down a memory hole.

What TV viewers see is a closed loop of familiar file footage: King battling desegregation in Birmingham (1963); reciting his dream of racial harmony at the rally in Washington (1963); marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965); and finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (1968).

An alert viewer might notice that the chronology jumps from 1965 to 1968. Yet King didn't take a sabbatical near the end of his life. In fact, he was speaking and organizing as diligently as ever.

Almost all of those speeches were filmed or taped. But they're not shown today on TV.

Why?

It's because national news media have never come to terms with what Martin Luther King Jr. stood for during his final years.
[more]

  thanks to This Modern World