The Miseducation of an American Treasure – By Carl D. West
America or the heads of state and its operatives who secretly make decisions about the direction of this country, and the visible law makers, business, spiritual and political leaders, all have failed this nation and its people, especially the Black and brown laborers and builders of this great landscape, who’ve contributed deeply to this nation, but have benefited the least.
Also, after having these deep and candid discussions about the power of this man and his goal to see his people prosper and advance the causes of freedom and equality, has led me to rethink my mission about the building of a new generation of leaders (NGLC). After taking a hard look at what my generation has selfishly accomplished and not giving much back to the tens of thousands of people who fought, marched and died so we could experience the small successes we’ve known. We have failed and failed miserably and t’s the one time I’m ashamed of the skin I’m in!
I know that’s a very harsh statement! But after analyzing the space we’re at today, versus where we were 50 years ago, it’s almost identical except for the multitude of individual success stories running rampant in hoods from the burbs to 47th and Lake Park (Chicago).
We have not lived up to the promise collectively, and I don’t know if we ever will! My peers, associates and friends have never felt real pain and struggle, and every year we salute and honor a man once a month who knew nothing but pain, strife and sacrifice. But yet we do nothing in return to honor our past and his commitment and so many others, let along the present existence of living icons like Rev. Jesse Jackson for example and others. We have not even waged war or fought for any major advancement for our own future, nor our childrens.’
I’ve never been a major fan of Rev. Jackson, but after research and being educated to HIS reality, I better understand his journey and contribution to this fight we still find ourselves in long after Dr. King’s death. The laws they influenced in order for Black, brown and white boys and girls to hold hands and rap together, Free at Last or Keep Your Head Up (Tupac), were vital to my generation’s progress.
This will be a three part commentary. But for now, just read these excerpts from the front end of Dr. King’s, I Have a Dream speech, and check for me later:
“I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of 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 they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.” – Dr. King (August 28th, 1963).
This man held these truths’ to be self evident. So now my brothers and sisters of America’s struggles, TRUTH BE TOLD, what will be your evidence towards the journey to the mountain top?
Peace and one love – Carl D. West, founder/managing editor TBTNewsService.com.
