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Time
for another King to speak up “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” — Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence, 1776. “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation: Conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” — Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863. The above quotes are from two of the most highly regarded documents in American history, yet the equality they both call for has never existed in this country. From the time when Christopher Columbus took slaves after his landing in San Salvador in 1492, until today, with the U.S. government’s federally-mandated racial discrimination policy, a barrier between the races in this “great melting pot” has existed and continues to exist. America has been divided into “politically correct” ethnic groups such as African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Latin American, Mexican American, Arab American and several others listed on federal job applications. Martin Luther King Jr. is probably the most famous civil rights activist in American history. His “I Have a Dream” speech is still quoted by civil rights leaders today. But his most famous appeal to human decency is his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” which he wrote to seven clergymen in 1955. This letter was later translated and used by the solidarity movement in Poland. It was also read over loudspeakers throughout the Philippines in 1986 and became responsible for the “peaceful” overthrow of the Ferdinand Marcos regime. On April 4, 1968, this strong voice of racial equality was silenced by a blast of James Earl Ray’s Remington 30.06 rifle. King’s voice may have been silenced, but his dream lives on in the minds and hearts of people all over the world. In contrast to the peaceful message of true equality preached by King, many black leaders of today have twisted or forgotten the dream. Leaders such as Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan seek to profit from the atrocities committed to black Americans in the past. They purposely ensure that racial tensions are strained and strive to inflame people’s hatred of one another. These preachers of hate must share in the responsibility for continued racial tensions, and new messengers of peace, in the spirit of King, need to step up and take their place. As citizens of the United States, we are all Americans and should collectively view ourselves as Americans and not by labels. Education is also extremely important to the furthering of racial equality in our country. The atrocities and other wrongs that have been committed to members of all races in the history of our nation should be remembered. But we must also be careful. Our children are not the ones who committed the wrongs of the past, so we must not burden them with the guilt of these misdeeds but give them the awareness of the crimes so they will not be repeated. “And when this happens, and 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, white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, Free at Last! Free at Last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream” speech, 1968.
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