L’Observateur / January 20, 1999

Monday was a holiday for Americans but as usual, it was recognized as such by few besides black Americans.

“This is not a black celebration,” Rep. Bobby Faucheux commented Mondayin Reserve. “but an American celebration, because we’re all in thistogether.”There remains in America a vigorous opposition, even to the recognition of a holiday for the slain civil rights leader. It goes hand in hand with thenotion that King was speaking only for black America. Nothing could befurther from the truth.

In his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered almost five years before his death, King noted: “The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.”King spoke again and again of the brotherhood of the American people, no matter which race or religion. He concluded that same speech byproclaiming, “When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” Unfortunately, as made clear by events which followed in the 31 years since King’s murder in Memphis, freedom for all Americans remains as elusive a goal as ever. Drug use has mushroomed among young Americans.Educational quality and job opportunities for all young Americans seems to dwindle. Nothing seems as good as it used to be.More people need to vote and participate in the selection of our government’s leaders and representatives. More people need to attend totheir spiritual lives. More people need to exercise tolerance beforeAmerica can truly call itself a free nation.

Although America has long prided itself, and rightly so, as being the most free nation on Earth, there are many mighty strides to take before all its children can be considered truly free – free of bond, free of prejudice, free of intolerance.

“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.”Perhaps the best-known quotation of King, the above statement illustrates the source of King’s power, his authority, his courage and his determination – his Christian faith.

King also wrote, “This is a multi-racial nation where all groups are dependent on each other…There is no separate white path to power andfulfillment, short of social disaster, that does not share power with black aspirations for freedom and human dignity.”At heart of King’s teachings is the basic need of all people for human dignity. He fought and taught, marched and died, thrown in jail, bruised andbattered, all for the cause of every American to live, unencumbered by the unreasoning hatred of his neighbor.

He fought and died for every one of us.

Copyright © 1998, Wick Communications, Inc.

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