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. ~ Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.
Some 60 years ago (and just months
before I was born), Martin Luther King gave what became one of the
most heralded speeches yet to have been delivered in the English language.
At
the time, hopes that this dream laid out by Rev. King would become
widely accepted were largely aspirational. His words that day hearkened
back - in more than one way - to those of a similarly gifted orator,
Abraham Lincoln. You may recall, in urging for reconciliation how President Lincoln had appealed to "the
better angels of our nature," in his first
inaugural address.
In both cases, the nation
moved forward, however imperfectly, until both of these great men's
visions advanced from aspiration to realization.
In fact, not that many
years ago, acceptance of the notion that all people should be judged by the content
of their character was nearly ubiquitous among both conservative and
liberal constituencies.
More recently, however, a worrisome trend has emerged.
This
troubling new vision substitutes reconciliation with Balkanization. It is a vision of division instead of unity. No longer is the appeal to our nature's "better angels", as it once was, but to something far less noble: tribalism, avarice,
and retribution.
This vision pushes back against the very notion of good character as a virtue. Such ideals have been
watered down, redefined - or rejected outright. No longer is the vision
one of character qualities over superficial appearance, but rather tribal affiliation based on skin color over
all else.
So in our current political climate,
while the conservative cause has fully embraced King's colorblind
creed, it seems that the political left has gone in a new and dangerous direction. In doing so, they have abandoned the dream, and embraced a nightmare.
