June 22, 2008
In August of 1963, a muggy, sweltering day, a Senior at Mt. Vernon High School stood by the reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. The student was only one of many many thousands that day, gathered in the hopes that some day there would be peace between white and black Americans. That student was me, and I was less than a month from my 17th Birthday.
As a 6th grader I witnessed the hostility and hatred of my fellow whites when Central High School in Little Rock was integrated. I cringed when called "nigger-lover" by some of my school mates who had never gone to school with blacks or ever associated with them or maybe even never knew one. You see, I grew up in the Army, my dad was a career officer and the Military had been integrated by President Truman in 1948. Integration was all I knew and I had no problems with it.
But, I digress, I stood with the thousands and listened to the tenor voice of Martin Luther King. As his voice rang out, this phrase in particular struck me, as it still does 45 years later:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."Judged by the content of their character. What a concept that is, when at the time, so many were judged by the color of their skin, the region they came from or the god that they worshiped, should not be judged by these things, but by their character.
And so we have arrived at today, having been through tumult, asassinations, riots and slow but positive growth, to a point where African Americans are elected by solid majorities to office in the south, where the bastions of hatred have been ground down, but unfortunately, where there are also those who would keep the races apart (Jessie, Al, are you reading this?) and those who depend on anger and hostility to keep their names in light.
We have had African Americans as Secretary of State, as Generals and Admirals, as Presidents of large Corporations, and now, a black American is running for President of the United States and it looks like he will get the nomination from the Democrat Party. Yet, in my opinion, the content of their character is still important.
Barack Obama proclaimed he would pull out of Iraq immediately, and now he says he won't. He said that he would be using public financing for his race, and now he won't. He has said that NAFTA was anathema, and now all of a sudden, it isn't. He has attended a church where some of the most vile racist comments made from a pulpit have rung forth, and now he says that wasn't the Jeremiah Wright he knew. He has associated with, and benefited from associations with an admitted but unconvicted urban terrorist. He has manipulated opposition off of the ballot in order to win elections. And he has said, in spite of no one making this association BUT him, that the opposition will play the race card.
The content of his character has been weighed.
And has been found wanting!
Posted at 11:59 PM
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Post contains 556 words, total size 3 kb.
Woulda' just been quicker to say "Mr. Obama, you have been weighed, you have been measured and you have absolutely been found wanting."
Posted by: Kender at Sunday, June 22 2008 09:51 PM (EcQpV)
Posted by: Raven at Sunday, June 22 2008 10:36 PM (5vqXz)
I've got a few posts up, somewhat similar,
http://jeremayakovka.typepad.com/jeremayakovka/the_content_of_his_character/index.html
Posted by: Jeremayakovka at Sunday, June 22 2008 10:40 PM (dvaEt)
Posted by: TexasFred at Monday, June 23 2008 05:11 AM (I04No)
We are all the same color on the inside.
Posted by: Big Dog at Monday, June 23 2008 05:38 AM (+q4Sb)
Yesterday, the WaPo made quite a story of how voting or not voting for Obama is about race, at least for many voters.
I am concerned that Obama has set back race relations here in the United States.
You are correct, GM, that Obama's character and changing political positions are matters which should be of grave concern to the electorate. I fear, however, that those important issues are not on the minds of American voters.
Posted by: Always On Watch at Monday, June 23 2008 06:59 AM (bYbHX)
Turned out to be a fun class. Being the token white boy was a gas!
Posted by: jim hitchcock at Monday, June 23 2008 06:14 PM (Ypm74)
Posted by: HannahJ at Thursday, June 26 2008 06:16 PM (NK/SA)
Martin Luther King's dream hasn't been realized with the election of Barack Obama. He wasn't elected on the content of his character. He was elected on the color of his skin.
Unfortunately, a majority of people voting for him had no idea what the true content of his character is and they didn't care to find out. They saw his black skin and said, "Yeah, I'm voting for him because we need a colored president." And, that's all they cared about. That is not what MLK wanted. That isn't what's good for America. It's not good for Americans, of any color.
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