Remembering a King

The past week’s extraordinary earthquake in Haiti has been the focus of most of us in the modern world that care about something outside of ourselves. The magnitude of this catastrophe and the sufferings of the people has been nothing short of heart breaking. I’ve felt helpless watching the imagines of people trapped in the rubble and the thousands of bodies strewn in mass graves.

Today, I watched as Wyclef defended himself in the midst of all he is doing for his country and its people against false accusation of mismanagement of donations. As the tears streamed down his face I felt his heartbreak from Haiti and thought just how far we AMERICA have moved from the true and living God. How in the midst of a natural disaster that could easily have befallen America one of our own would say that Haiti “made a pact with the devil.” While yet another, berated our president for sending relief because "our tax dollars have done enough."

Tonight, I quietly thought on the eve of Dr. King’s birthday holiday what he would think of this America today. This America that so loathes the realization that a Black man is president that no subject or person is off limits when it comes to criticizing him. Today racism no longer hides behind a hood but dresses up every day in a suit and tie. And those who spew division and hatred have more airtime that any other voice in the county. An America who witnessed the poorest country in the western hemisphere losing its people and its land –have borderline compassion.

What would he think of this America where the majority of young African American’s have no idea of the struggle he and others endured for the privileges we now enjoy? America- where the face of those whose equality he fought so hard for are killing each other daily in unprecedented numbers. In all of his dreaming, I’m sure his America never had the majority of black men occupying beds in prisons rather than as heads of the family.

I believe Dr. Martin Luther King would say to America it’s time we turned our hearts back to our first love the true and living God. It’s time we remember that at the end of the day all human beings no matter what the color of their skin are more alike than they are different. It’s time we stopped focusing on the minor "what I want" and start decreeing "what we need." At the end of the day, I believe we will all find out that it was never about YOU…but your fellow man. It’s the only way we will every truly be free..when we have love for one another.