After the President's depressed Trayvon Martin speech today, I'm reminded that next month, August 28, 2013, is the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
Why not use that propitious occasion to declare victory in the long war on Jim Crow and white racism and announce you are bringing the federal troops home?
LOL'ed - is this the plucky comic relief?
ReplyDeleteSailer has a dream. That Obama will listen to his advice.
ReplyDeleteSome dreams are more real than others.
You know what I would love to see? Some crime-fighting politician -- say, Michael Bloomberg -- hold a press conference on that anniversary to announce that, as a matter of fact, one's skin color can indeed act as a rough index of the content of one's character. Acting on this knowledge is called "profiling," and has been highly effective at reducing crime.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how can "character" have "content"? I realize King's phrase has taken on a kind of relgious quality, which might be why so few people actually bother to notice what arrant nonsense it really is.
Laugh all you want, but according to the Guardian, African-American leaders are planning to make the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman uh, incident, a centerpiece of the event.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait.
But then I'm a good few thousand miles away from the nation's capital....
....and in a very white area.
I'll add another two cents.
ReplyDeleteI'm slightly surprised to see this particular circus continuing. I actually expected this whole thing to be yesterday's news by now -- especially given not merely the outcome of the trial but what actually transpired during it.
Seriously, 'the no justice, no peace' crowd and their media cheerleaders came off looking like (ahem) monkeys. It was obvious there was no case against Zimmerman.
Yet instead of quietly dispersing in embarrassment, they seem to be doubling down.
Folks, we may yet have the riots the less articulate members of the black community promised us.
I think that the pResident's focus on AshTrayvon and stirring up black outrage is designed to keep other, embarrassing, matters out of view of the public.
ReplyDeleteA link for the Guardian story containing promises by African-American leaders to make Trayvon Martin a centerpiece of the MLK extravaganza:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/19/martin-luther-king-george-zimmerman-race
August 28, 2013 Will be about one, mourning for Travyon and attempting to turn him into a symbol of the new civil rights struggle to wage vs profiling and strand your ground.
ReplyDeleteBut the focus and centerpiece of that day is to be about none other than...
Words uttered will be along these lines and themes, more or less...
"On August 28, 1963 Dr Martin Luther King stood here at these same steps to say he had a dream. It was quite simple back then, just treat one another equally. What's good for whites should be good for persons of color. Judge not on the color but on the person's character. With the events of the past year and a half, culminating last month, we've discovered that America is still seemingly stuck in the past, back when character wasn't always prominent but profiling and judging on what you look like is what defines a person's daily life. In some parts of the country that dream still seems as distant as when it was first hoped for.
At the same time, we have made significant progress toward the ideal of equality, justice and basic dignity for all our fellow citizens. To cite an example, America elected and then reelected a person of African-American descent to the highest office in the land. That was unthinkable back in 1963.
In my own way, I'm humbled that you've placed your trust in me to serve you these past five years. If someone had said to me back in Hawaii that I'd have a role to play in helping to heal the hurts and wounds of the legacy of Jim Crow and extend civil rights toward more Americans I'd have looked at them cross eyed. That may have been for others growing up, but it certainly wasn't for me. It was never going to be my dream.
ladies and gentlemen, today I stand before you and say, from the bottom of my heart--
I AM YOUR DREAM. Fully realized.
I AM YOUR DREAM. That you hoped would one day come to pass.
It is truly humbling, to stand before you here today with a knowledge that you cared enough to embody me with all your hopes, expectations, goals, and dreams and know that I am meant to be a part of the civil rights legacy.
Because if a person of color, of African-American descent had not been elected, the dream could never fully be realized until now.
While on an individual level my dream that I dared not speak aloud as a child as been given meaning there is still more work that needs to be done. We must insure that all americans of color maintain the gains that were long and hard fought for during the struggle for basic decency. We must guarantee that our children and our children's children's dreams will never be in risk. We must continue the work that needs to be continued.
That is why I am asking you the people and the congress to put aside any differences and join hands with me now to agree to work together to make this nation of ours free from prejudice. Profiling others, this is not what makes us Americans. This is not justice and fair, because it says that if you have a certain color on your skin, automatically you must have robbed a store somewhere. This should not continue.
That's why I've asked my attorney general to examine all the facts of various cases, instances of the past year that may suggest profiling might have occurred, especially in a court of law where all Americans regardless of color, should have the same rights as others to expect justice and fair treatment.
We must end racial profiling now!
I AM YOUR DREAM. I never thought it possible. Believe me when I say that I will do all in my power to live up to the faith and trust you've placed in the legacy of Dr King and the humanity, fully realized in one Barrack Hussein Obama.
I am your dream today and thankfully the dream continues toward a more perfect union so that one day, our children and children's children may each have their own dream come to pass.
Thank you for making this day about the dream and about me as well. I couldn't have done it without you.
I have a dream, that I will be U.N. Sec. General next
ReplyDeleteOf course, Mr. Sailer is being facetious. The Zimmerman case is an example of the long way still to be traveled on the march to eradicate racism in America.
ReplyDeleteTrayvon died for the following inalienable right, that blacks, when disrespected, may kill the person who disrespected them without regard to the race, creed, ethnicity, or sexual orientation of the other person. Further, that a non-black person resisting the attack is guilty of a hate crime.
This new Constitutional principle, soon to be articulated by Justice Roberts in "U.S. v. Zimmerman" (a copy of which I have obtained from my contact in the DoJ) is founded on "Pigford v Glickman" under the general category of "reparations for being black".
After this new Constitutional right is established (the right of blacks to beat people to death), there is of course still progress left to be made. The next step is of course to establish "discourtesy to blacks" as a Federal civil rights offense.
The march from Selma continues.
this type of "minority -- I have a grievance" crowd will use any incident, no matter how false or ludicrous to run around & hoot & holler in public, thereby endangering real people.
ReplyDelete"Also, how can 'character' have 'content'? I realize King's phrase has taken on a kind of religious quality, which might be why so few people actually bother to notice what arrant nonsense it really is."
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, that famous phrase embiggens the smallest man.