Martin Luther King Jr and a Dream Deferred

RALEIGH – More than a half century after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr his sermons resonate more than ever. The real resonance today stands with the vast majority of everyday Americans as they stand in contrast to the dissonance of racial rhetoric and ‘woke’ social movements that have come to dominate much of politics. Today the words of Dr. King are championed by conservatives, for what they actually mean, consistent with securing these blessings of liberty.

Fortunately, most Americans exist in communities, among neighbors, enjoying lives as people among other people. The common denominators among us as Americans are values based, ‘content of their character’ factors of everyday life. Yet the modern day Left have turned King’s lesson on its head; instead of removing race as a component of character, worth, and rights, the Left has made race THE factor in ascribing a twisted dogma of social rights and and mob justice. It’s a political perversion of an otherwise noble struggle for individual rights as guaranteed in our Constitution and prescribed by God and nature. To the extent that King and his movement embodied and carried the torch lit by our Founding Fathers in realizing a Republic founded upon a man’s right to his own life and a government to secure those rights, those sparks are needed today as well.

In many way they may already be reigniting as Americans recoil from the extremes of the social justice movement and a world reduced to moral relativism. That’s especially the case when the amporphous dogma is enforced with mob violence tactics like Antifa. Today thousands of gun rights supporters are attending lobby day at the Virginia state capitol in response to egregious gun control legislation, and where the governor declared a threat of emergency because of the threat of violence from protesting Leftists. Using violence as a means to a political end is in direct violation of King’s most powerful lessons.

From his acceptance speech after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964:

“After contemplation, I conclude that this award, which I receive on behalf of that movement, is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.”

This is a lesson worth revisiting as political forces push and pull at the fabric of America. However, that doesn’t mean being quiet by any means. Quite the contrary, taking a stand for all the right reasons, standing firmly on moral absolutes and self-evident truths, is necessary if to turn the tide of sinister forces. Today the rights the threats to free speech are under more pressure from political censorship, social justice dogma, and safe zones are at an apex. A cancel culture has erupted to ruin people voicing politically incorrect ideas.

From King’s speech to the Hungry Club Forum where he addressed a room full of politicians in Atlanta, Georgia and took provocative politically incorrect positions with pride. Irregardless of the positions he took, it was his insistence that you can’t let political and cultural police shouldn’t silence you when the stand is righteous.

“For those who are telling me to keep my mouth shut, I can’t do that,” he said at the end of his speech. “I’m against segregation at lunch counters, and I’m not going to segregate my moral concerns. And we must know on some positions, cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there’re times when you must take a stand that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but you must do it because it is right.”

Consider this in the context of our modern day ‘Woke Police’ force and what they do to those on the Left that step out of line. How lauded are those that refuse to participate in the charade and stand up to it all? It’s because their stand is right.

Of course, there IS a set of inviolable principles that should govern our lives among and between one another, they’re just not derived from social justice mobs and their ring leaders. They are fundamental truths as dictated by the laws of nature, and the beauty and power of King’s words speak to them now as they did then. Hopefully, and likely, Americans continue realizing King’s dream in their everyday lives and resist the political forces intent on perverting and exploiting it into a festering dream deferred.

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