45 years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech in Washington, D.C. It had been a long and bloody year, many civil rights workers killed, injured, or arrested, many blacks and whites both ending up paying a horrible price fighting for freedom and equality for all Americans.
They failed. They failed, but not because they did anything wrong. They failed because while they could change the laws, they could change what was socially acceptable to say in public, they could not change the hatred in the hearts of bigot-Americans or heal the anger and suspicion of those raised to fear the outsider who found themselves suddenly asked to treat fairly those who did not look like them, talk like them, or worship like them. They failed because, in the end, America could change her laws, but America could not change her heart.
But that was 45 years ago. Two generations have died since then. Two generations have been born since then. And so tonight, 45 years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his I have a Dream speech, a man who is half African mounts the stage before a throng, and standing beside his African-American wife accepts the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. I cannot think that it is coincidence that the Democratic National Committee scheduled this convention's penultimate speech on the day they did. But it is very fitting anyhow, coincidence or not.
-- Badtux the Seeing-history-made Penguin
Planned? Probably.
ReplyDeleteGenius? Definitely.
Could McCain get 90,000 people anywhere at the same time?
Not a prayer....
perhaps it is further proof the the DNC planned all along to nominate the black man over the white woman regardless of how the primary turned out?
ReplyDelete