WHY SHOULD WHITE CHILDREN CARE ABOUT KING’S HOLIDAY?
In 2000 our Douglas County census takers thoroughly counted over 32,000 residents, but they only found about one hundred African Americans. Why should our mostly white children care about the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday?
Dreams, that’s why. If the bright light of a dream radiates through the face of a child, and that dream must take flight on wings of inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that child and the family of that child should thank King for the thunder of his dream for freedom.
King told African Americans, “We can not walk alone.“ He said they must trust those whites who “have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.”
Abraham Lincoln bound white dreams of freedom for liberty to Negro dreams of freedom from slavery in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Stephan A. Douglas championed democracy, working across party lines to resolve conflicts over slavery in Congress, states, and territories. He trusted democracy to deliver liberty untrammeled by governmental oppression. With respect for his trust in democracy, citizens named our county Douglas after splitting from Lincoln County in 1883.
Lincoln warned that Douglas’ indifference to the existence of slavery within any state would mold sentiment to accept slavery in every state. Lincoln said, “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail, without it nothing can succeed. Consequently he who molds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to execute.”
Who can doubt the power of sentiment to make a statute impossible to execute with the number of drivers illegally talking on cell phones?
King visited my white college campus and moved us to recognize our blindness to the vast foothills of discrimination slowing people’s march toward their inalienable rights and dreams. We were satisfied with our 14th amendment prohibiting discrimination by states against African Americans.
King disturbed our indifference when we learned African Americans had no rights to sit anywhere on a bus. As we learned more, we realized we accepted discrimination against our children our families.
Slowly we discovered women at work suffering discrimination from the men around them. We discovered people battered by hatred because of who they choose as partners.
We discovered grandparents dismissed from jobs because they were old. We discovered girls in schools could not play sports, because sports were for boys.
So for the first time in our freedom demanding nation, we passed civil rights laws protecting white people. White people.
Our children should be told we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr because their dreams are our dreams. To protect every child’s dream we promise to bind lofty sentiments against discrimination with the ideals of democracy for which Douglas county is named until we rejoice in the bells of freedom and justice ringing from every shrub steppe and Badger Mountain.
Dreams, that’s why. If the bright light of a dream radiates through the face of a child, and that dream must take flight on wings of inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that child and the family of that child should thank King for the thunder of his dream for freedom.
King told African Americans, “We can not walk alone.“ He said they must trust those whites who “have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.”
Abraham Lincoln bound white dreams of freedom for liberty to Negro dreams of freedom from slavery in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Stephan A. Douglas championed democracy, working across party lines to resolve conflicts over slavery in Congress, states, and territories. He trusted democracy to deliver liberty untrammeled by governmental oppression. With respect for his trust in democracy, citizens named our county Douglas after splitting from Lincoln County in 1883.
Lincoln warned that Douglas’ indifference to the existence of slavery within any state would mold sentiment to accept slavery in every state. Lincoln said, “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail, without it nothing can succeed. Consequently he who molds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to execute.”
Who can doubt the power of sentiment to make a statute impossible to execute with the number of drivers illegally talking on cell phones?
King visited my white college campus and moved us to recognize our blindness to the vast foothills of discrimination slowing people’s march toward their inalienable rights and dreams. We were satisfied with our 14th amendment prohibiting discrimination by states against African Americans.
King disturbed our indifference when we learned African Americans had no rights to sit anywhere on a bus. As we learned more, we realized we accepted discrimination against our children our families.
Slowly we discovered women at work suffering discrimination from the men around them. We discovered people battered by hatred because of who they choose as partners.
We discovered grandparents dismissed from jobs because they were old. We discovered girls in schools could not play sports, because sports were for boys.
So for the first time in our freedom demanding nation, we passed civil rights laws protecting white people. White people.
Our children should be told we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr because their dreams are our dreams. To protect every child’s dream we promise to bind lofty sentiments against discrimination with the ideals of democracy for which Douglas county is named until we rejoice in the bells of freedom and justice ringing from every shrub steppe and Badger Mountain.
Posted by JSR at 1/22/2009 6:35 AM 
Categories: Serving Others,Build Better Communities,Compassion,Justice
Categories: Serving Others,Build Better Communities,Compassion,Justice
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