Forty-seven years ago, on the day after my birthday, I listened to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. give his now famous “I Have a Dream” speech. On Aug. 28, 2010, one of my granddaughters’ birthdays, I listened to two different groups of people giving two different interpretations of Dr. King’s Dream.
His famous phrases talk about his children being “judged by the content of their character” and not by the color of their skin, a day when “all of God’s children – black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics”…when “sons of former slaves and former slave owners” can come together in unity.
Well, on Aug. 28, 2010, that did happen – except in two different places with two different agendas and two different presentations.
On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washiongton, D.C., Glenn Beck, Dr. King’s niece Dr. Alveda King and others of all creeds, colors and ethnic groups came together. However, just down the street, the Rev. Al Sharpton and a group of black “leaders” held their own “coming together” and blasted Beck for “desecrating” Dr. King’s Dream.
DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS
Funny how people can hear the same thing and come away with different interpretations.
Let me give my disclaimer now. I listen to Glenn Beck regularly and agree with most of the things he says. I’m a Conservative, a Republican and a Christian.
I have also listened to Rev. Sharpton and have absolutely no respect for the man. I consider him a poverty pimp and a misery money making minister who plays on black folks’ fears.
Isn’t it strange that only certain blacks claim privilege? Who says that a white boy cannot respect Dr. King and honor his dream?
Dr. Alveda King is also a Conservative, Republican and a Christian. Who says she cannot have a different interpretation of her uncle’s dream than the so-called black leaders?
MOSTLY WHITE
Isn’t it strange that the 400,000-plus who went to Beck’s event, where of all ethnic and religious groups (even though they were mostly white) with different
political ideologies but came in peace and prayed and honored Dr. King but the 6,000-plus who went with Sharpton were mostly black and came cussing out the people who went with Beck?
Who flipped the script?
Do people really understand that the very man Dr. King helped become president, John F. Kennedy, cussed Dr. King out for even planning his march on Washington? Do they understand that it was Kennedy’s FBI chief, J. Edgar Hoover, who spied on and lied on Dr. King?
The people that Sharpton wants blacks to be loyal to helped create the Klu Klux Klan. Now they don’t need the KKK to be the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party anymore; they have black folk who will almost kill anybody who does not regurgitate the “Democratic party line” and will cuss out anybody who is a Conservative – black or white.
ISLAMIC TERRORISTS
God. Family. Country. That was part of Dr. King’s dream. But now it seems that black folk are for God and family but not for country. They flock to church on Sunday but will cuss out anybody who is black and loves America – before President Barack Obama.
They choose to give rights to radical Islamic terrorists who will kill them in a heartbeat but will deny Conservatives their right to disagree with the black President. For if you publicly disagree with “The One,” then you are a white racist or a black Uncle Tom.
Too bad most black folk don’t know the real story of Uncle Tom, who was a hero who did anything to protect his family.
LOTTERY TICKET
Too bad they don’t seem to know their own history, especially the real version of Jim Crow and the 1960s Civil Rights movement, not the revised one from Liberals and Progressives.
Dr. King’s Dream was to bring all of us together. Too bad those ministers who became self-appointed leaders after his death changed his dream into their own lottery ticket.
It would have been nice to see Al Sharpton come together with Glenn Beck and Alveda King on the Lincoln Memorial – in the true sense of Dr. King’s Dream, instead of being mad because Beck was white and got the permit first.
Barbara Howard may be reached at BHoward11@bellsouth.net.
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