There are several parts of MLK’s great “I have a dream” speech that are of crucial importance in an age where “Freedom” and “Justice” have been redefined as “rights to have without work” rather than “rights to work to achieve.” Where they have become not “rights to be judged by the quality of character” but “rights to be judged favorably based on non-white Skin color, non-heterosexual orientation, and non-male gender regardless of skill and character.” Where a justice based in law & personal responsibility is exchanged for a social justice based in special considerations, envy, and the counterbalancing of “natural & inherited” advantage with a crippling of the strong in hopes of advantaging the weak… harming all in the end.
He says,
“But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.”
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
“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.”
African American economist Thomas Sowell discusses the economics of race in his books ECONOMIC FACTS AND FALLACIES and THE QUEST FOR COSMIC JUSTICE. He considers both the upward trends of economic prosperity in the African American community prior to the Race Riots of the late 60s, and the devastating impact of crime on the economy of African Americans thereafter. The embrace of envy, hatred and violence short circuited the upward growth of many communities and plunged them backward. His chapters on Gender economics are just as enlightening.
I share a dream of “brotherhood”… but it cannot be built on discrimination no matter what direction that discrimination goes… reversing direction does not redress the problem, it mere removes personal responsibility from some (crippling their souls) and removes incentive from the others (killing the golden goose).
