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Obama and Dr. King: Dream Not Yet Fulfilled

Posted by TONY CAMPBELL, Columnist in At TMV, Politics.
Jan 19th, 2009 | Comments

As a American of African descent, I am proud of the fact that this country voted for Barack Obama, and tomorrow, he will be sworn-in as the 44th President of the United States.

I supported the President-elect, as a Republican, back in January and it has been a worthwhile effort. However, that being said, it is left to me to share a little common sense with the rest of the blogging universe (and whoever may read this post)… the connection between Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech and the election of Barack Obama has very little to do with each other.

An excerpt from Dr. King’s speech is below in italics:

“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 the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. 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. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

Unless I am mistaken, Dr. King is talking about changing the hearts of the American people to move beyond bigotry and racism, not the election of one person of color to the Presidency.

I agree that the inauguration of an African-American male is a good first step towards Dr. King’s goal; but it is NOT the dream itself. Dr. King was not talking about a single election as being the mountaintop. If Dr. King was alive, I bet he would go to Obama and say something like this: “Well done, young man… now that you have the job what are you going to do with it.”

In other words, to the people who are ready to anoint Obama as the next heir to Dr. King, let’s keep two things in mind. 1) He is a politician and Dr. King never wanted to be one. 2) Let’s see what President Obama actually accomplishes over the next four years. The Dream is alive, but not yet fulfilled… let’s see if Obama can transform the dream into a reality.

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DLS

1. Obama is not today's Martin Luther King, today's JFK, or today's FDR (or Moses or Jesus, even if Ken Burns might make this his magnum opus someday to outdo what he did with, and to, Jackie Robinson in his "Baseball" production.). Obama is simply the one who gets to be the first black President. Plenty of us knew it would happen someday. (The same will be true for a female President.)

2. This is 2009, not 1959 or 1969. Nobody can honestly or seriously deny the progress and reform that has occurred in this country.

3. I am happiest for black Americans tomorrow, most of all for those centenarian children of slaves that still live today, who have voted for Obama and may now see him inaugurated. Along with these come the few foremost non-black civil rights activists from the Civil Rights era, the authentic people, in other words. This is truly their day. I don't care for the ridiculously excessive and hyped (verging into the realm of mentally ill behavior) adoption-and-obscession with Obama by the rest of the crowd. Have a party, but be grown up and get real, too, people. Plenty of us who aren't liberal (or who were liberal but changed in the normal way life proceeds) have no poblem with the guy, and even find him impressive*, but no, despite what one poet said on NPR, no, he hasn't been sent down to us from Heaven.

* I saw the 2004 speech -- those others of you who did agreed with Hillary Clinton's reaction to it, if you remember that, too -- and though I thought this year was one election cycle too early for him, I took him fully seriously after Super Tuesday, as did many others, obviously.

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