If I understand the news reporting today, it's okay to hold a rally on the anniversary of the I Have a Dream speech if your skin is black, but if your skin is white, you are a racist and your motives are suspect. Sharpton said today, "They may have the Mall, but we have the message," which is a direct contradiction to MLK's life's work. King wanted all of us to hold hands, black and white, and walk into the future together. He believed that we could look past the color of anyone's skin and relate to the content of the character of each person.
The Rev Al Sharpton must not have received the memo.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr advocated that ALL of God's children, black and white, would live together, work together, play together, and pray together. King dreamed of the day that ALL people would be judged not on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character. Today, Sharpton affirmed that is not his goal: he wants everyone to be assured that Glen Beck's audience was white and, therefore, suspect in their motives for gathering on the 47th anniversary of the I Have a Dream speech, in a place that is "sacred" to African Americans, the Lincoln Memorial. Glen Beck was simply holding a motivational speech for white folks, and he picked the wrong day, the wrong place, and the wrong message.
I am offended that Al Sharpton cannot live Dr. King's message and chose not to join Glen Beck at the Lincoln Memorial to demonstrate that the Dream is, indeed, alive in America. What a wonderful opportunity for peoples of all races to meet on the Mall and share the civil rights message, but again the black leadership chose to separate black from white with a separate event designed to highlight the color of one's skin. In the process, Sharpton once again brought attention to the content of his character, again forgetting that being black does not make the man because a "real" man does not need to count on the color of his skin for recognition, honor, or delivering a message.
Sharpton is so busy talking his talk that he forgets to walk King's walk.
It offends me that newscasters feel compelled to point out that Glen Beck's audience was primarily white -- but don't also note that Al Sharpton's audience was predominantly black. Sharpton also shared his belief that "white folks" don't know civil rights because they aren't black. Really? Perhaps Mr. Sharpton should read about the settling of America and the concept of the "melting pot" that resulted from opening the doors to all races, all creeds, all religions, including, unfortunately, slaves from Africa and other countries. We don't heal past wounds by poring salt in present situations: focus on the Dream for the future, not the nightmare of the long-distant past.
Why is Glen Beck an issue for Al Sharpton? Beck's goal is unity for all people, under God: he didn't say if you're black, you cannot attend his rally. As a matter of fact, it was an open invitation to ALL people who could travel to Washington, DC, to join the movement to reunite this country as ONE nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL. Sharpton's goal seems to be to ratchet up the differences, maintaining a black or white attitude for his life, rather than moving into the 21st Century and dedicating himself and his resources to making King's Dream a reality that binds people, rather than a wedge that divides them.
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I think Sharpton's main point is that Glenn Beck has repeatedly called Obama a racist. He has repeatedly said things that appear to diminish the black man and what the black people have accomplished in this country. And he chose that location, time, and date for his anti-Obama, anti-Liberal (traditionally, African Americans are predominantly Liberal), pro-Republican rally.
While I agree with everything you say here about what Dr. King wanted and preached for and against, I think that Sharpton has a small but valid point this time. Which is astonishing to me, as Sharpton's usual race-bating tactics normally set my teeth on edge and my skin aflame. But in this one case, I think he has a point.
But his way of then dismissing the point and holding his own mostly-Black, racially charged rally is not what Dr. King would have wanted or done. Both are wrong, but Sharpton, in my mind, is wrong for the right reasons, for once in his political career.
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