What Would Dr. Martin Luther King Think Of The View From The Mountaintop Today?

This article is timed with the unveiling of The Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial. As we gather to gaze up at Dr. King's furrowed brow in the coming weeks, we as a nation must ask the question, have we lived up to Dr. King's vision from the mountaintop?

Dr. King was a man who was unafraid to lead. His life was a fight in which he believed "an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". In today's times, shouldn't all of our nations leaders work to mirror the leadership of Dr. King? We all must strive in our own lives to be living memorials. The political situation in Washington is a testament of what is not remembered in the words of Dr. King. We are shredding the poor in all facets and entitling the rich. We have a president who, on one hand, embodies the dream of Dr. King yet fails because he has been pressured to ransom our economy and its promise.

We so need to remember King’s vision today. In the United States, the large gap between the rich and the poor has reached record highs since the Great Depression. The median net worth of black households is $13,450. This is 1/10th of what the income is of white households.

In the last year of his life, Dr. King mounted the Poor People's Campaign. The campaign recognized that poverty and economic alienation was the unifying struggle of America. King saw an increased need for a new understanding and a determination by poor people of all colors and backgrounds to declare and win their right to a decent life and respect for their culture and dignity. It was an issue that demanded a resolution with great leadership. King claimed it, unafraid, though he knew it would put him in direct conflict with America’s political elites. He died before the fight had really begun.

Dr. King saw a nation where the vulnerable, the innocent, and the oppressed struggled for their inalienable rights. In one of King's final sermons before his untimely assassination, King spoke of being a drum major. He said that he was a drum major for peace, justice, and righteousness. We all must be drum majors. All of us have to be regardless of race, color, religion, or sexual preference.

Millions of Americans are unemployed and the inequality of the economy is on the rise, as well as, aid for the needy and infirmed. Americans are again in desperate need of Dr. King's type of coming to the aid of Americans who are disenfranchised. He was never afraid of going toe to toe with those folks that opposed his views. Please Mr. President be more than a symbol of the embodiment of Dr. King's dream.

What good is the defense of marriage act?

I'm sure by now you all have heard about the freak accident that occurred at the Sugarland concert in Indiana over the weekend. There was a rapid change in the weather and the wind caused the stage to blow forward and collapse on the crowd. Forty people were injured and five lost their lives. Well the tragedy doesn't end there unfortunately. One of the victims who lost their life was Christina Santiago. Her partner Alisha Brennon was also injured in the freak accident.

The bodies of four other deceased victims have been released to their loved ones and yet Christina's body still remains in the morgue. The Coroner's office is refusing to release the body to her partner citing the defense of marriage act. This is basically an anti-gay law that says that marriage is between a man and woman. Therefore, relationships that do not fit in those guidelines are not afforded federal rights, like survivorship. The coroner is using that barbaric law as a way to not justify Christina and Alisha's relationship. Christina's only other next of kin is an aunt. The question is who is this defense act protecting here? How does it help anything to prevent Alisha from planning her spouse's funeral?

Why would the federal government inflict this kind of pain on Alisha, who along with just losing her spouse is grappling with her own injuries. The government is supposed to be there to protect you. Who is this protecting? How does inflicting harm upon Alisha in her darkest hour prove to strengthen traditional marriage. Ugh! Our deepest condolences to all that were injured and those that lost their lives. Come on Indiana! Get it right. Equality please.

Racism and Politics

It was a shock to me today but I found myself agreeing with Sherri Shepherd from The View. I even found her to be articulate when explaining today's topic of Racism and Politics. This after all is the woman that admitted on national television that she wasn't sure if the earth was round or not. But let me not digress and go there. Today she was passionate and right when she shouted to her View cohorts "how many passes are these white politicians and pundits going to get? Barbara even motioned for her to "calm down" and "lower her voice". Well I say F Babs and Go Sherri!!

How many times is a politician going to direct a racial epithet to our President and get away with it? They have been too numerous to mention all of them and they are always followed up by an apology saying they didn't realize it was a racial slur. I say bullshit! The latest gaph is congressman Lamborn referring to Obama as a tar baby. That to me is like using the N word. I don't care what the definition is which by the way originated in the days of slavery. It was down right racist and damn disgusting. Do you think he would have ever used that term if the president was white? I completely understand Sherri's passion and disgust.

It's just like Bill Maher has said several times that "these racist republicans can not stand that a black man is President". Therefore, they hide behind a microphone on a right wing political talk show and blab their racism. This joker Lamborn is dying to use the N word. It is on the tip of his tongue and since he can't, he searches for other racial slurs that are just as bad. And yeah he issued an apology a week later and said he meant to use the word Quagmire. Yeah right, considering quagmire and tar baby are such similar expressions. Our government is being dragged down by racist politicians.  But what's else is new?

The Debt Crisis

As I was preparing to blog today, I was looking up hot topics. I was sure all the trending topics would involve the impending deadline that the nation is facing. After all, everyone is talking, blogging, facebooking, and tweeting about it. Most all of us will be strongly impacted by what ever the ruling is. That is unless you are among the very wealthy. But I was wrong. According to online trends, the only topics that are trending are all about the NFL and all the trades that have taken place in the last 24 hours. Now, I am a huge sports fan and in future blogs, I will probably include a lot of sports content. But today is not the day. I was really almost sick when I saw the cover of the NY post. On the cover it depicted shirtless NY Jets receiver Santanio Holmes downing a bottle of Crystal champagne. He was celebrating his 50 million dollar contract that he just signed. So what who cares. He is among the few who will not be impacted by what's going on in Washington.

The rest of us could be literally screwed if the Nation's present AAA credit rating is downgraded. Those of us who have been trying to spend responsively since the economy shit the bed in 2008 could be in big trouble. We will end up paying for Washington's carelessness. For most of this century, Americans spent well beyond their means. They purchased the life they wanted on credit always intending to pay it back later. Once the economy collapsed after all the bets Wall Street made didn't pay off, we as Americans started spending more wisely. To our credit, we started living within our means.

Americans started honoring their obligations and paying down their debts. We did what we were supposed to do. Now we are hearing that Washington may blow off paying their debts down. How is this possible? But guess what folks it is possible!  And if it happens, we are the people that are going to end up suffering for it. But thank God NFL players won't suffer, right folks?