The Dream

by justin.barrett

Forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. His assassination touched off a wave of riots across the United States, and decades of bitterness amongst the civil rights movement, activists and supporters alike. An official day of mourning was declared three days later by President Lyndon Johnson. Dr. King’s legacy and words still reverberate in our collective consciousness to this day.

The most remarkable thing about King’s assassination, however, isn’t the location, or the timing, or the myriad reasons for it, but the fact that he knew it was the inevitable outcome of the life he chose. King chose to be on the side of the poor, the mistreated, the abused, the discriminated against; he chose to be against war, against injustice, against racism; he chose to be for tolerance, and non-violence, and equality – all admirable, yet, during that time, dangerous, principles to hold. But, King didn’t just believe in these principles, he fought for them – demanded their observance, even – with powerful rhetoric and civil disobedience. And, he did all of these in the Jim Crow South, when a black man, no matter how intelligent or charismatic or eloquent, was considered inferior to his white counterparts, no matter how ignorant or uneducated.

Dr. King knew his stature would inevitably lead to his death. Despite this knowledge, though, he continued on, preaching and disobeying. He did what was necessary regardless of the dangers to his life. Imagine this sense of purpose. Imagine Coretta Scott King, his wife, knowing she would likely be a widow, left to raise her four children alone, and still encouraging her husband in his duties. Imagine the remarkable sense of responsibility King saddled himself with, knowing he was the right man, with the right ideas, at the right time. Not the wrong man at the wrong time, but the right man. He never lamented his fate, but owned it. He didn’t shy away from his responsibilities, but embraced them. King knew the country needed a man like him, and he was willing to become a martyr for truth, equality, and righteousness.

Had Dr. King the ability to do it all over again, I doubt much would change in regards to his participation in the civil rights movement. Jackie Robinson, Jack Johnson, Edward Brooke, Alexander Lucius Twilight, and others who’ve broken the color barrier, undoubtedly felt the same sense of responsibility. And each persevered, each welcomed history.

All of this leads me to current Democratic Party candidate for President, Barack Obama. As you know, should Senator Obama be elected, he will be the first black President of the United States of America. As it is, he is the first to receive the nomination from one of the two major parties, and he is the sole African-American serving in the U.S. Senate (and only the fifth to be elected into the Senate in U.S. history). Mr. Obama, too, undoubtedly understands the importance of his historic campaign, and the possible threats he faces should he win the election. And, like Dr. King, he continues on, knowing he is the right man, with the right ideas, at the right time. Should his fate turn out similar to King’s, I doubt he or his wife, Michelle, would regret it much, because he is doing what he feels is right, what he feels needs to be done; and, undoubtedly, he knows the country will be better for it. He feels the sacrifice is worth it.

I envy this sense of self; this driven purpose of history and righteousness. Most of us possess neither. We move through our lives with little to fear and offer the world little in terms of anything new. But, we all owe great men like Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackie Robinson, and Barack Obama much. Each of them put their life at risk for the advancement of humankind. Let’s just hope Mr. Obama’s similarities to Dr. King’s ends there. Let’s hope we, as a people, as a country, have moved beyond our grotesque history and can accept change, can start a new chapter where tolerance and coexistence and hope are the significant themes.

Our past is filled with despicable and ugly acts of hatred, cowardice and intolerance. From time to time, that ugliness, even now, bubbles to the surface. With the racial epithets and outcries of Obama's murder recently heard at McCain's rallies, no matter how one tries to attribute them to mob mentality, the reality of an assassination attempt appears to grow. And, with the fomenting of hatred, the race-baiting, the exploitation of passionate fears, with the renaming of Obama as an "outsider" and as an "other" McCain's campaign has engaged in, there is bound to be a bitter and potentially angry mood among the McCain supporters should Obama prevail—picture the raucous crowd of villagers raising torches and pitchforks, and volleying epithets, at Frankenstein's monster before moving in for the kill; except trade sniper rifles and handguns for the torches and pitchforks. This scene can very easily come true, should overwrought zealots decide that the country is in danger with Obama as president, something right-wing blogs and the McCain smear ads have either alluded to or outright posited. Just recently, a McCain operative claimed to have been sexually assaulted at an ATM by a “big, black man,” who then proceeded to carve a “B” in her cheek after he saw her McCain bumper sticker. This horrible event turned out to be a hoax perpetrated by the operative; a desperate attempt by a desperate volunteer working for an increasingly desperate campaign. And, we all know, desperation leads to frustration; and frustration can lead to the worst kind of behavior, especially when coupled with fear.

The simple fact is, America has insufficiently dealt with its ugly, racist past; but it’s not the past this campaign is about; it’s the future. On March 18, 2008, Obama said, in a speech on race hailed as one of his finest, “I chose to run for president at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren.” It’s this sense of change and righting the course our nation is taking that has allowed Obama to run despite the risks.

In the same speech, he said that “what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.” History. It’s what Dr. King envisioned and what Obama is striving for: to realize the dream; for his race, for America, and for the children who come after us, black or white.

[Editor's note: H E R E are some folks j.b mentions above. McCain/Palin the candidacy has morphed into some hideous beast-thing, some freakish, slouching, grinning, conniving, horrible, soul-less creature of its own demented power-lust, concerned only with crushing and destroying the hated Other. It's Golem-Smeagol willing to forgo any chance at personal redemption to clench the illusory ring in its diseased claws. It's the witch in Wizard, sending deranged flying monkeys out across the landscape to do its gruesome bidding, racist fangs glinting in the dull sunlight, ignorance crawling across their pasty faces like lice over the skin of rabid, feral cats, warriors for a jesus of their own imperfect design...shameless bigots with bloodlust curling their sneering lips.

Like it or not, this is the huge white elephant in the country right now. We've seen enough glory-minded armed psychopaths in America that we need not imagine much to imagine someone plotting this very second. The startling, dangerous, and irresponsibly incendiary rhetoric adopted by the McCain camp in attack ads, the unwillingness to publically own them, and the inability/unwillingness to stop a speech mid-sentence and quickly, publically correct these "supporters" when they scream things the candidates find inappropriate or unfair...to focus not on what is, perhaps, a legitimate complaint in re: Senator Obama (inexperience), and instead focus on what is outlandishly out of bounds (terrorist, arab, etc.) is a terrifying and sad thing to behold. Some very basic pre-requisites to even run for president in the United States seem to escape this slavering and vicious mass...not the least of which is "you cannot run for President of the U.S. unless you are a US CITIZEN-- and not a NATURALIZED one." He is not an Arab. Senator Obama is an American,born in Hawaii, which is still the 50th state in the Union. To attack an opponent for anything but his ideas has been the downfall of American politics: it's seen the electorate grow ever more weary, and what's become more acceptable, what's chalk up as "just politics," become more insulting to a nation starved for real political debate.

But, again, of what value are IDEAS? They are nothing short of political currency. After all, isn't it that what killed MLK, Jr., JFK and RFK--ideas? Specifically, it was some crackpot trying to destroy IDEAS by destroying the men behind them. It didn't work, of course, as evidenced by Obama's historic nomination and potential presidency...but, probably, there seems little left when your own campaign has no ideas, while your opponent is flush with them. -- Eds]