Today we observe the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on January 15, 1929. A day to celebrate the dreams of a dreamer which led us here to this point in history. But what have we accomplished since his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968? Is hope still alive for a better tomorrow for everyone?
Things have definitely changed, but not all for the better. We are able to be slackers, forgetful, disrespectful: Hope has become a 4-letter word with with insignificance written all over it. There are so many times I look through my window to see both men and women holding up the wall at the bar across the street. There they are: Loud, drunk, sometimes brawling. Did MLK die for our right to be idiots?
Education was (and IS) of paramount importance, and at the forefront of many of Dr. King's speeches. Without education, we damn ourselves to sit like cavemen afraid of the dark. Yet and still, so many of us take for granted their right to be educated and act foolishly. Having not lived in the days when education was a privilege, they don't finish school. Some spend their lives in a oblivious stupor letting things happen "to" them instead making things happen "for" them.
But they're not the only ones to blame for the ignorance which has befallen our civilization. When funding a major league football stadium takes precedence over educating our children, society as a whole has failed. My concern is that greed has not only foreshadowed any reasonable attempt to educate our children, but has blinded us to the need to be informed. Without information, we are, indeed, ignorant. For all we know, the gadgets and gizmos which are tossed at us as the new electronic miracle may be an attempt at keeping us enslaved.
"Hope" as a 4 letter word? Lets try a 5-letter word instead. "Faith." I have faith that all will eventually be the way Dr. King envisioned; a world without color lines, without fear. Though the two words are comparable, they are not interchangeable. Unfortunately, we won't see this in our lifetime.
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
Where do we go from here?
rainwriter jones @ 2 a.m.
