Martlin Luther King Dreams Ignored, Forgotten, Neglected

     I woke up this morning with something running in my mind, and I will try to explain it here.

 

     The Reverend King was brutally assassinated in 1968, before I was born. Quite a bit of water has run under the bridge in the United States and the world since. But these many years later we as a society, collectively and individually, cast off his words, his intents, his dreams. There is much hypocrisy when it comes to his legacy and ideals. Unfortunately, some make out his example and stands to be things that they are really not. The politics and the economics and the accusations of systemic racism that are invoked in his name are canards, are false narratives. Lies. Why? Because we have forgotten his standards, his hopes, his dreams.

   So, allow me to drop some wisdom on you, Generation Z, Millennials, my own Generation X, and any one else who can grasp what I am sharing here. In the spirit of Martin Luther King, Junior, the Reverend and believer, patriot and hero, martyr and sage, a celebrated American with his own holiday. Let us discuss what this great man of the past would want for you, me, us, today.

    Do you go to church? Or synagogue? or mosque? When was the last time you did go, make your way to a house of worhsip? Do you plan on going? Why or why not? Perhaps churches "are not for you", maybe organized religions, according to your way of thinking, "only pander to and exploit the masses" (see Lenin), that you think that religions "sow divisions and hate." Do you believe any of that? Church, temple, or mosque, or a religious study or practice groups do not call you? Why is that? You believe that organized faiths are the cause of evil, that they are old fashioned and antiquated, no longer relevant, that they are hateful and misogynistic, at minimum patriarchal, racist and status quo seeking, anti-LGBTQ and all things good and progressive. Church and state are separate, is the eternal battle cry, and the state is the modern and proper panacea for all societal woes, not some organized, old man institution of suppression and hate, of greed and vice, achieving the opposite of their goals, raking the poor of their money and time, propping up themselves and feigning humility while all the while fleecing the needy.

I have heard and I comprehend the arguments against organized religion. I understand that organized faiths can seem inconvenient or uncomfortable on your personal "style", or worse can seem to go contrary to your personal ethics or standards. But, who needs fixing? Is there poverty, systemic racism, classism, unfair inequities? Yes? What do we as a society and collective need to do to remedy these generational issues? Listen to Doctor King, for one. Believe in a Higher Power. Act on faith, not on disbelief.

What church or faith do you participate or work at, or even associate with? None? You avoid them? You eschew them and tear them down metaphorically as wastes of space and time? Hmmm. And life is turning out good for you? For your community?

What would Reverend King say?

GO to church. Regularly. Make it a habit and let it be a part of your soul and trust community.

Am I making this up? The Reverend Doctor would be mortified by those who have dropped their family religions, holy books, holy places, community outreach groups, Bible or other scripture studies.

You have fallen into a vast wasteland of unbelief and scorn. Words of the Holy Bible and the Reverend, and of the Lord, not just me. Gandhi would say the same. Instead, you frequent bars and games and video parlors and everything but a place of organized faith. And your souls are rotten with waste of the world. And you continue to fall behind morally, spiritually, ethically. The dollar is bigger to you, even if ill gotten. You do not help the poor. Selfish and contrary to the sermons and dreams of the Reverend.

So there's that. Try to tell me that these statements are not true. You can't. Secular wisdom and the world have become the new religions, which is only a bunch of politics and condemnation that has no solution. Kicking against pricks, the great secular "none" (having no faith) generations. You are a part of it, and we are aghast. Bow your head and head to a worship service. As soon as possible. Otherwise, you are still part of the problem.

    But this is not all.

There is the family. Oh, yeah. That. Father, mother, siblings. Some would throw in the grandparents, some aunts and uncles, too. Maybe some godparents, too. How do families come to be?

    Back when Martin Luther King was alive, people in the United State and the world over had kids by legally binding contracts that were usually applied by men of the cloth, which was a solemn and austere and usually spectacularly beautiful ceremony called a wedding; a man and a woman, of sound mind and adult standing, would come together to make a family and to have kids. Those progeny would be raised by those parents, the ones that created them or adopted them, and the children would have a mother and a father to raise them and teach them and sacrifice for them and try to help them know between good and bad.

 

    Doctor King believed in this. Was there another way? Was one woman supposed to have children with five different men, none of them claiming their offspring, and all of them leaching off the government checks to survive? What would the good Doctor say? Sleep with a whole grip of others, raise your kids as bastards to the state?

    What would Martin Luther King say about the state of the nuclear family now? It needs to be better. People need to get married and bring children into the world right, and raise them right. Parents need to be there for their progeny, literally and spiritually.

    What would he say about tattoos, and grooming standards, and the dress of teenagers and those adults who labor or work in other professions, those who never wear a tie or dress, those who wear baggy clothes and clothing that do not conform with normal, decent living and working? Why all the jewelry, and skin piercings? Why all the hours and hours spent on hair styles that require so much work, instead of say, reading a book or learning about cultural knowledge like attending a museum or visiting a historical shrine? I am not saying that all people who put hours into their looks are ignoring better opportunities to better themselves and others, but how much time did Doctor King spend on his appearance? Did he think that fancy hair and body tattoos were of priority to advancing?

    Okay, I realize my cynicism has the best of me here. The times and era of the 1960s were decidedly more socially conservative than now, the grooming standards were more clean cut and proper. I recognize that many things have changed since the times of Doctor King, including racial mixed-marriage acceptance and the legalization of same sex marriage; some of those fashions and values of yesteryear do not translate across the board into the 2000s. There are good, well meaning youth and adults who use jewelry, studs, gauges, hooks, pins, needles, and all sorts of alternative piercings and body manipulations, not to mention hair coifs and expensive clothing and styles, that some would argue are distracting and detract from the overall progress of a hard working, striving, citizen.

    We do not have to be "clean cut" in order to live out Martin Luther King's dreams, I know. The now fallen Bill Cosby used to tell Black youth to "pull up your pants" and be presentable, not "ghetto", and it turns out he was one of the worst anti-women predators that we know. Looks are not everything, I get it. However, too many youth, men women, of all classes and backgrounds spend too much time on their looks and styles, and some of them are non-productive to the point of destructive. 

   Can we agree on that? What else would Reverend King disagree with today? Too much alcohol. Too much tobacco. Too much marijuana. To many illicit drugs. Too much sex, especially outside of marriage. Too much crude language. Too many gangs. Too much gun and other random or systematic violence. Not enough education. Not enough welfare or health care. Not enough food. Not enough marriage. Not enough religious attendance. Not enough Bible. Not enough good principles being touted or celebrated.

Yeah. 

We are not living his dreams, safe to say. Who do we blame? Republicans? Democrats? Church people? Atheists? Hollywood? Generation X? The Baby Boomers? Ronald Reagan? Bill Clinton? Michael Jackson? Televangelists? Osama Bin Laden? The Pope? Blacks? Whites? Tiger Woods? 

Who is to blame for us failing Martin Luther King, Junior, and his goals and dreams?

All of us are to blame. I am trying to right the ship right now.

We need to correct the course of the ship and remember his words, his dreams, his intentions.

We have forgotten them.

I repeat: we have forgotten the words of Doctor King.

 

Forgotten what? 

 

Precisely.

 

We celebrate a federal holiday for who? Who was he? Why did he matter?

 

Does he matter?

 

According to our words and actions, he is no longer relevant.

 

You and I live that way, it is that way. 

The Reverend, the true intent of his hopes and dreams, have been kicked to curb. 

Convince me otherwise.

You don't have to be Christian and Bible believing to live the dream of the Reverend. But, you have to aspire and strive to live higher than you and we have been living.

Remember who, again? I think that we have forgotten and forsaken the Dream, one principle at a time.

Dads, marry your wives. Parents, raise your children. Believe that marriage is right, because it is. Believe and act on raising your children, because they are the dream.

Is this a dream, or a weird nightmare?

His death was nightmarish, and too much of his community has gone the same way. We are his legacy, and we have neglected what he was about.