As I am writing this it is Martin Luther King Day. It is also the day that most of the racists in our political system tell us how much they admire Martin Luther King and his message. The more I read the more I realize that race is in every part of our lives. When I was younger I thought what a great world we were building where the meaning of Martin Luther King’s word would be the norm, not the exception. I heard his words and many of us no matter what color we were believed in those words. I went to integrated schools and had black friends growing up. We even had a Black Home Coming Queen my senior year in 1971 even though the school was over 80% white. She won not because she was black. She won because she was both talented and beautiful. I sang with her in choir and know how really talented and deserving she was.
Growing up in the 50s and 60s in America race was in the forefront of just about everything. It was on the news just about every day from the Martin Luther King to Malcolm X. The message was different from the two but the goal was the same, the advancement of the Black Race in America. How much was actually accomplished? From the looks of it not enough. One of the first things that the New Governor of Virginia did was to make it illegal to teach Critical Race Theory in Virginia schools. Now I will guarantee you that CRT as it is called in not taught in the Schools of Virginia. What some people want is that Race is not taught in Public Schools. To be more exact the subject of Racism they do not want discussed on Public Schools. Are they embarrassed from their past? For some reason I do not think that is the reason. They may as well do away with Martin Luther King Day in Virginia because that day is nothing but acknowledging racism here in America and the struggle to overcome that racism that is still being waged today. Trending on Twitter right now is the discussion of Blacks for Trump. To be honest with you I don’t know what to think of that so a Googled to see if there was any Jewish Hitler supporters. Well the answer was yes and I posted an interesting link below. There are many different reasons to promote hate. Power, money and influences just to name a few of the reasons. Sometimes it is fear. In every case the answer is probably different. That was true in Nazi Germany and that is true today.
Martin Luther King had many friendships within the Religious community and one was with Billy Graham. Growing up in the Lutheran Church at the time Graham was always pointed out as one of the shinning lights of the religious world. He was thought of a great man with a great message of love and unity. He really wanted to know the struggles of race in America and I think back then so did the Lutheran Church. Many Religious figures stepped in and joined the fight for racial freedom. They marched with King and encouraged peaceful dialog. Not today. Today the church is surprisingly silent when it comes to discrimination. Could it be of all the money that pours into the Church? Is it that the Church can be bought just like our politicians? It is a sad testament for the man that spent 3 years homeless, healing the sick and walking and talking to the poor.
Five years ago America took a huge step backwards with the election of Donald Trump and that helped make racism mainstream in America. I didn’t realize how many racist that there were really out there preaching White Power and White Supremacy. We now have voter suppression like we haven’t seen for decades. We are closer to a version on American Apartheid than most think. With the discrimination that the world sees in today digital age it is hard to tell the world that we are still the bastion of freedom that we once were. Freedom is just a hollow word when you are at the same time suppressing people and suppressing their freedom to vote. Ted Cruz said that they want you to hate your race. Really? Hate your race. No, what he really wants are you to help him suppress other races including his own Hispanic race. As I am writing this pretty much every major Republican Politician are singing the praises of Martin Luther King, even Ted Cruz. If you honor him just one day out of the year but dishonor him the other 364 days during the year you really do not honor him at all. Voter suppression is dishonoring Martin Luther King.
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