Candler, NC – Almost 60 years ago, Mahalia Jackson, the world renown Gospel singer called out on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to her dear friend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "Tell 'em about the dream, Martin, tell 'em about the dream" those eleven word launched one of great speeches of history and a great lesson to us all. In the back half of his speech King shared the dream he had a few nights earlier and had disclosed only to a few friends in casual conversation. As he told the audience, he dreamed that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners would be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. He dreamed that his four children would one day live in a country where they would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Although it was a dream he had in 1963, it is now one most in this nation share.
It is a shame that here in 2022, almost 60 years later, while the vast majority of our fellow citizens are living up the dream and the ever impressive dream of an America built on the individual, that our systems have not caught up. Instead they seek to judge people solely by the color of their skin, not by the content of their character. The difference is now, is that White children are taught to hate themselves, to feel lesser than. In the name of equity the institutions have forsaken equality. This is evident in our schools when race is the deciding factor in how exceptional this nation is in her brief time upon the Earth. If they were White, they were evil, oppressive and who in no way did anything that benefitted mankind. If they were a Minority, they were helpless victims of an evil race that in fact still keeps them in chains. I reject this notion, America is made up of individuals, some good, some bad but individuals nonetheless. Until we as a people, an American people can see that and truly believe it the benefactors of exploiting our differences will not stop . Racism is not gone, it has changed from the Jim Crow South to the CRT and Cultural Marxism of today. As Dr. King once said, " We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now." Perhaps instead of allowing others to scuttle the boat we appreciate the crew of which all 332.9 million of us are comprised.