Today was the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination. It is a blessing that we were allowed to have a wonderful and powerful man like this on Earth. Though it is so sad that his time here was so short. After watching several specials on Dr. King, I began to wonder how much has America, race relations and economic relations changed over the last 40 years. I looked at several articles about this online today. It seems like this is a question many are asking.
A quote for Dr. King is on my mind today. It is a quote from his last Sunday sermon at Washington National Cathedral in 1968. "There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the means and the know-how to lift every child out of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will!"
It is amazing how this statement is still 100% true today. How much has changed? How much has not? I personally didn’t realize the large differences in economic class until Hurrican Katrina. I grew up in middle class and never really thought about what was below what I knew. Of course I saw upper and lower class on tv, around town and so on, but was not fully aware of the differences. How they lived.
I had seen race issues discussed at school, on tv, church and at functions all my life. We all learn about slavery, the civil rights movement, affirmative action and the women’s rights movement. Though I don’t remember learning about economic issues.
2008 also marks the 40th anniversary of the Poor People's Campaign. Dr King and the Southern Leadership Conference organized the Poor People's Campaign in 1968 to address issues economic justice. It challenged our nation to end the poverty afflicting millions of Americans of all races and to confront the triple evils of racism, excessive materialism (poverty) and militarism that threaten our nation and world.
Currently in America, there are 36.5 million Americans still living in poverty, including nearly 13 million children. There are 47 million people in America who have no health coverage, and 9.4 million of those are children.
In 2001, a black boy born had a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison in his lifetime and a Latino boy a 1 in 6 chnace. 87 percent of black, 83 percent of Latino and 58 percent of white 4th graders cannot read at grade level.
580,000 black males are serving sentences in state and federal prisons, while fewer than 40,000 males earn Bachelor’s degrees each year.
We must take celebrate and follow Dr. King. Follow him and be A disturber all unjust peace. Hear his warnings about the need for reordering the misguided values and priorities he believed to be the seeds of America’s downfall. Be an opponent of violence. Call with him for massive nonviolent civil disobedience to challenge the stockpiling of weapons of death and the was they fuel. Hear his warnings that excessive materialism of the greedy deprives the needy of the basic necessities in life. Build the new nation and world Dr. King called for! Live in his greatness. Continue to grow and to never lose hope, like him. Do not give into fear, uncertainty and despair, like him.
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