I spend a great deal of time thinking about prejudice.
Call it white man's guilt. Call it being a good liberal. Call it being a socially conscious person. But whatever you call it you will, when reading or meeting me, soon find it is a part of who I am.
I just came from a local event honoring Martin Luther King Jr., one of my heroes. I was wearing my "Men of quality support women's equality" t-shirt. It seemed fitting.
While there a man did a stirring rendition of King's "I Have A Dream" speech which - as Victor wrote about - is one hell of a great speech.
When I wrote about the great look at the issue of race in a movie like Crash I think about King and think he would have been pleased.
When I think and write about attempts to stop economic injustice, be it at Wal-Mart or wherever, I think King would smile and agree that is part of his dream.
When I suggest that King would be appalled at how some black Democrats treated a black Republican running for office, I think I was right.
Some ask "What Would Jesus Do?" while I ask "What would MLK do?"
I know he's pleased to be joined by the late great Rosa Parks, who - while
controversial in her own way - conferred upon the world a great benefit with her actions.
It's harder to say what King and Parks would say about some of the stickier ethical issues of the day: Would they agree with me when I write that Viginia is pushing for conformity at the expense of fairness and equality when it mistreats lesbians and Latinos?
Would they object, like me, to Republican wags like Bernard Goldberg who like to put themselves up on a pedestal by putting others down?
King's dream has not come true, despite what some would have you believe.
But being a cynical idealist I hope it will one day come true, even though with bigots aplenty I'm worried it will never be true and this world will always be a nightmare to some.
You are missed, Dr. King and Mrs. Parks, but not forgotten.
Article comments
1 - Kay Bell
Nice piece, Scott. I'm there in the cynical idealist ranks with you. Here's to increasing efforts to make the dreams come true.
2 - Dave Nalle
I think that idealists become cynical when they see how far awry the good works of someone like MLK can go when they are left in the hands of lesser men.
Dave
3 - Scott Butki
Kay, thanks a lot.
Dave, oh my - I think I agree with you on a point. I think I better go back to bed because this is too wird a way to start the day:)
4 - Scott Butki
Is anyone else watching this Black.White series? I'm using it to explore some thoughts and questions about race and words.
For this week's review I was thinking about this piece and others so I decided to ask such questions as whether a person offending others (in this case white people) bear responsibility if they had not intended to be offensive
5 - Scott Butki
I've been thinking a lot about King this weekend.