I have always been impressed with Martin Luther King's “I Have a Dream” speech. Every one that matters—loaded phrase, friends—should read it and practise it. It should be hanging on the walls of every home and institution, memorized and celebrated by every school kid in North America.
I was a school kid myself when he was gunned down, just five years after John Kennedy was assassinated. I wasn't aware of who he was or the deep moral relevance for his time. But I am aware that there needs to be another Martin Luther King today to rise to the occasion. We need his balanced view on race more than ever.
In other words, more King and less Sharpton. We really need fewer clowns in this circus called life.
Here's one excerpt from Dr. King's speech: “...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...”
That couldn't be more relevant than today, some almost five decades after he said it.
Martin Luther King had a dream, but I'm sure his heart would be broken over the way his dream has been turned into a nightmare.
I have no doubt he would be distraught over this “black lives matters” movement in the States--one of the most racist movements in America's history. That's a strong statement, to be sure, but it's true. It came out as a result of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. (Some day I hope to get the complete story of what really happened there that night.)
A brief review here: It posits that, in the eyes of white police, black lives do not matter. That, of course, is pure bunkum. What is true is that blacks lives don't matter in the eyes of Planned Parenthood: There is a wholly disproportionate number of black babies that are murdered compared to white babies. The same is true when it comes to black-on-black violence: Precise figures escape me, but of the black youth who have died, 5% have died at the hands of white cops, 95% at the hands of fellow-blacks.
Funny how that is rarely presented to the public by mainstream press.
Of course black lives matter, but so do white lives, and every other colour of lives. And it is indeed a race issue—the human race, of course. That's why we don't chop hands of boy thieves who are hungry for food; that's why we don't throw a vulnerable woman off a rooftop; that's why we don't send victims out into the ocean, to swim for their lives, then pick them off like they were hunting rabbits.
And that's just last week's news from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia, respectively.
All lives matter, so that's why Jewish surgeons operate on Hamas patients in Israel. That's why Dutch resistors hid Jewish fugitives from German monsters during the Second World War. That's why countries with Judeo-Christian principles shift into high gear to help other countries in a time of natural disaster—regardless of colour or creed, race or religion.
If we served and saved people based on skin colour, we would have a mess on our hands. Wait, we already do have a mess on our hands...
That's why the black-lives-matter philosophy is so fraught with problems. Whether it's education, finances, morality, safety, employment, all lives matter. To show preferential treatment to one group of people because of race, well, that's racial prejudice.
The irony is not lost here: If I championed a cause where “white lives matter,” I would be considered a racist and a bigot. But the silence is deafening when it's reversed.
It's simply a matter of exchanging the word “black” for the word “all.” That's why we don't kill babies before they're born; that's why we oppose doctor-assisted suicide; that's why we provide a quality of life for the disadvantaged that, to my knowledge, no other country can match.
All lives matter, from the womb to the tomb. And colour is irrelevant. Anything short of that is shameful.
A worldview that allows for differences—indeed, celebrates them-- is a healthy worldview. It sees the rich diversity in culture. It allows for language, tradition, colour, and creed differences. To segregate on the basis of the above is short-sighted at best, evil at worst.
I agree that black lives matter, but I insist we insist that “all lives matter.” I'm sure Martin Luther King would agree with that.
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