Monday, January 16, 2012

Living the Dream in The Era of Self Destruction

Today is the day we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. I always take the time to recognize his sacrifice along with others to give us the opportunity to fully experience freedom and the American dream. He was gave his life for that cause and changed society so there’s no doubt in my mind that he deserves the proper recognition.

I think if Reverend King were alive today he would not attend any of the events planned to celebrate his work. The people who he fought and sacrificed so hard for are killing one another in the streets for nothing. Gun violence is widespread and it’s tearing our community apart. Year after year it seems we are mourning the loss of young men, women and children. If that wasn’t bad enough, there’s a code of silence that keeps killers on the streets and that only leads to more violence from them or someone feeling like they have to get justice themselves. We have kids who are so out of control that some parents have to stretch their finances to pay tuition at better schools just to keep their kids away from their own people so they can have a chance to learn.

These things are going on in full view of the rest of the world and our leadership and community doesn’t seem to be willing to concentrate 100% on this issue. What could anyone in a position of leadership and influence today say about living the dream when there’s a chance someone could kill me in cold blood because I stepped on his shoes by mistake? Today is a day to recognize a man who loved everyone enough to preach non violence but his own people hate themselves enough to embrace their own destruction.

I don’t mind listening to a few old speeches today from Reverend King himself but the folks here now should all be quiet and in meetings trying to figure out how to fix this situation we have. I don’t think we can consider anything accomplished until this violence goes away. I'm just hoping no one gets shot today at a MLK Day parade. That would be shameful if it did but at the same time no one would really be surprised.

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