My daughter attends a high school here locally and today they did a rally for Martin Luther King day.
To her surprise it was not what she expected it to be. Here is her account:
It's a sad day when any given student feels suppressed during an assembly about expression your rights. It's a sad day when any given student looks around to her peers and wonders what exactly is wrong with her for not feeling the same. It's a sad day when any given student gets angry about the suppression of her own opinion.Today at my school was the Martin Luther King Jr. Day assembly. I sat down with my friends, prepared for an assembly discussing civil rights, the past, and what we can keep doing to avoid going back. I was prepared to shake my head at the lack of knowledge that racism wasn't just black, but anyone else.
What I got was something completely uncalled for and left me flabbergasted.
I have always been someone who felt that the United States, while powerful, was full of naïve people who forget about the world outside the borders through their materialistic views. I have always accepted that I am lucky enough to live in a country where help is given where it's needed, and where lies and manipulation are an outstanding foundation for government. One of my beliefs that I've held fast has been that the United States needs to finish what we started, and then focus on stabilizing ourselves. We've given much, now we need to stabilize our home. Pay off debts, cool down liberal versus conservative arguments, focus on maintaining social security and get our military the credit it deserves for keeping us so safe and secure.
One of my thoughts, whenever I watch a candidate or politician attempt to debase our military, is that "You wouldn't be so safe and secure without that military keeping us safe." The reason the U.S. is so secure is because we are one of, if not the, largest power in the world.
Having illustrated my views and points, it is within understanding that I shook my head and was disappointed when a 'Hero's Recognition' for ten students was nothing more then a popularity contest. Only one person had really done anything worthwhile. One of my friends had kept a student secure last week during a seizure while calling for help, and so was duly recognized. The rest were pretty much teacher's pets who had happened to smile just at the right time. But I applauded and went along with it. Other students came up to talk about groups they started, to help children who didn't have anyone to help them, like being a buddy to those kids who are always bullied and giving them someone they can truly call a friend, or mentoring and being a big 'sister' or 'brother' to the poorer children who had no one to look up to. I can go along with that.
What I can't go along, is turning a school assembly of recognition of deeds done before, into a political tool to make everyone feel like shit about their lives.
A group came up to talk about Darfur and Congo. I have heard a bit before, so I mostly tuned out. But over 75% of this assembly was focused on making the student body feel horrible about being born into a better country. One girl, in fact, was making the people around me rather angry. She was the chosen demagogue and spoke the most. She spoke weighty words, but her eyes told us she didn't care, that she was only there to try to get people into a cause she didn't care about.
One of her more memorable lines was this one.
"Dead BODIES of CHILDREN, MOTHERS, FATHERS, laying around in PILES, MURDERED cruelly..."It was this and more. And they invited people to the Career Center to show more 'truth' on the situation of the 'world'.This assembly left a sour taste in my mouth. I saw attempts to try to correlate this into a racial issue, but all they explained were murders, never talking about the people forcing it. They focused on the 'poor children' and other such atrocities to make people feel bad about being born into a different country. All I ever saw of the 'attackers' and 'terrorist' of this were people of the exact skin color, yet they talked about the attackers and terrorists like they were white, and like the children were black.
I have never been more appalled at an attempt to sell an idea.
The sour taste continued to linger in my mouth as I headed to my next class, where I proceeded to get in a fight with one of my friends. I told her my views, that I just felt like we should stable ourselves first.
"There's no genocide in the US, there's nothing that bad here, but over there-"I tried to tell her that I just meant that the debts, everything, should be focused on before we start charging into something that will put us in more debt from having to buy weapons, rations, transportation, etc."That's nothing compared to this! Don't you get it? There are people being killed over there! This is why I'm not getting my US citizenship, you're all so selfish."While it is tempting to point out the racism deep-rooted in the South still, the problems of racism are being used as a political tool to make the white man and woman look bad, gang turf wars, drugs, racism against immigrants, and such, I withheld my tongue and just shook my head, telling her she wasn't seeing my point. She just stormed off, and I have a feeling I lost a good friend because of this.Racism in today's society has lost its true meaning. In a strange sense, when we push someone who looks different into a Hero pedestal, aren't we being racist to them? There are no biting words, there's no hate, but we're segregating them anyhow. And there are people who claim only a white man can be racist. I don't even think I need to go into the irony there. Racism is just what it is. Unnatural prejudice against someone because they look different from you.
I stand in my school today, looking around, and I wonder, how many people would hate me for saying my views? How many people will shove me in the halls, throw me in a garbage can, punch me, ostracize me, and spread rumors about me, for expressing my views? How many people would turn their nose at me and declare me a failure for thinking in a strategically and logical sense like schools attempt to do? Am I not supposed to use my mind, or am I to become a sheep following in the flock, sent on my route by whichever dog yaps the loudest?
The most significant fact about MLK is that he eschewed race, color and culture for content of character and merit. This is what kids should be taught. And this is what leads to a better world free of racism. To the extent that the US has risen above racism is to the extent that most of us now realize that color and ancestry are immaterial.
Most of us can see the folly of historical and multicultural arguments as well, because it is clear that some cultures and individuals perform far better than other cultures regardless of their color. We should not celebrate or encourage failing cultures, nor tell people the lie that failing cultures are equal to successful ones, when they are demonstrably not.
This is the root trick behind the failed philosophies of the left regarding anyone different skin tones. They've taken skin color, and then wrapped it in culture. So for example, the left attacks people like Clarence Thomas who have different culture than the left approved and expected culture for his skin color. Even though Clarence Thomas is a highly successful individual and stands on his own merits. And then we have the comments here from frequent commenter WVH where again, skin color supposedly provides one with different outcomes. Never mind the evidence which clearly shows that people can choose and operate within any culture regardless of their skin color, to the racists, color is always important, and always trumps character, merit, values and cultural choices in determining outcomes.
Every year MLK's legacy is hijacked in tragedy as today's race baiters continually tell us that we will never get over color, and that we need to focus on color and culture instead of just treating people as individuals and evaluating their personal merits.
This year is no different, just another excuse for intolerant, racist indoctrination all in the name of MLK. As long as the left leaning racists continue to focus on race, and glorify failed cultures by cloaking them in race, progress with respect to eliminating racism will indeed be slowed.
Posted by: Jeff B. on January 19, 2008 10:00 AMI feel bad that this girl has to exist in a high school where she knows that her ideas would not be tolerated. That's what I mean by issues. Issues she has to put up with, not one's that she has created for herself. What a tragedy that a high school student should have to deal with such nonsense on top of the already difficult task of navigating adolescence.
The good news is that she has the right philosophy to move forward where most of her classmates will be crippled for life by their indoctrination.
Posted by: Jeff B. on January 19, 2008 10:08 AMI read two editorials today, both by black conservative writers. One will be especially disturbing (if it is even read by liberals) and one just heart breaking.
'Black Democrats and Battered Wife Syndrome' by Ellis Washington
Aborted America by Star Parker
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on January 19, 2008 11:24 AMhttp://www.mlkonline.net/dream.html
For those who have read more of Dr. King's writings and take more from them than the content of character line:
You Are Here: MLK Online > Speeches > I Have a Dream Speech
Martin Luther King Speeches
I Have a Dream - Address at March on Washington
August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C.
Watch the Full 16-min video of Martin Luther King's famous I Have a Dream Speach
"....I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four 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.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today...."
2. It is interesting that a poster who had difficulty disavowing both David Duke and the KKK chose to comment on this site. Apparently, Dr. King's ideas are of use when convenient to make arguments against real civil rights unless one considers David Duke a civil rights icon.
3. Is the issue really that there is not much diversity of thought in academic institutions and I am not referring only to race, but political philosophy and worldview which has nothing to do with race. Most public institutions are staffed almost entirely by secular progressives and those who are probably more liberal than conservative. This has nothing to do with race.
This is a really old study, but the findings haven't changed:
About the Journal
This journal is licensed to JSTOR by
University of North Carolina Press
The Political Party Affiliation of College Professors
D. Stanley Eitzen, Gary M. Maranell
Social Forces, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Dec., 1968), pp. 145-153
doi:10.2307/2575144
This article consists of 9 page(s).
Abstract
The literature on political party preference of college professors presents the consistent finding that social scientists tend overwhelmingly to identify with the Democratic party. Using a stratified random sample of college professors, this study explores the effects of discipline as well as region, type of school, faculty size, and professorial rank on political party preference. The data reveal that although each of these variables has an effect upon the dependent variable, region and discipline are the most salient.
Contact JSTOR
?2000-2008 JSTOR
Most profs are overwhelmingly dem and secular progressive and they teach the teachers and they teach your kids, it has little to do with race, but political and philosophical orientation.
It you folks can't even say that David Duke is vile, I guess there is probably always going to be issues of interpreting Dr. King's legacy and its meaning.
"WVH where again, skin color supposedly provides one with different outcomes. Never mind the evidence which clearly shows that people can choose and operate within any culture regardless of their skin color, to the racists, color is always important, and always trumps character, merit, values and cultural choices in determining outcomes."
Specifically point out where I said this.
Basically, you have no idea what you are talking about, as usual.
Posted by: WVH on January 21, 2008 12:59 AM