MLK’s “Dream” IS “The American Dream”
Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking during anti-war demonstration, New York City photo by Don Rice.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. embodies the vision of the quintessential “American Dream”. His beliefs were profoundly “American” at their core. Maybe that’s why many on the left are distorting his legacy by teaching children to equate him with the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
King, Jr. believed like the American founders that “all men (and women) are created equal”—which, by the way, is very different from the leftist mantra of ‘equity’, meaning forced ‘equal outcomes’.
From History.com: The “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr…., remains one of the most famous speeches in history. Weaving in references to the country’s Founding Fathers and the Bible,
Yet, the Southern Poverty Law Center‘s education arm promoted a former teacher’s article about using MLK Day to teach first graders about the Black Lives Matter movement and the “need for continued protest and action in the face of ongoing systemic injustice.”
Critics slammed the lesson as “child abuse”. Carol Swain, a retired professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University and the author of books on race in America, calls it a “shameful form of indoctrination,”. Swain has become a powerful (yet softspoken) and respected expert. She has also created some of the most popular of the 5-minute PragerU videos like, What I Can Tell You About Racism, The Inconvenient Truth About the Democrat Party, and The Inconvenient Truth About the Republican Party.
This excellent article in The Daily Signal focuses on how children are harmed by propaganda that distorts history and robs them of the truth and pride in their America, the one that fought the injustice of racism at a high price. This propaganda uses children’s natural innocence and desire for fairness against them.
“First-graders are excited to study through a lens of fairness; it is largely what drives them in their daily interactions,” wrote a teacher in the SPLC article. “If they can understand why Dr. King marched, then they can certainly wrap their minds around the need for continued protest and action in the face of ongoing systemic injustice.”
Dr. Swain (disagrees), “My impression is that a 6-year-old is not prepared to understand anything about ‘systemic injustice’ or systemic racism,” … She added that exposing young children “to controversial materials or agendas, adult agendas, it robs them of their childhood. It’s a shameful form of indoctrination of children who are too young to process the materials and information being presented to them.”...
“Black children will start interpreting every experience they have through the lens of racism,” she predicted. “For white children, I think that it will cause them to be embarrassed, to be ashamed, and to have feelings of guilt…. teaching Black Lives Matter in the same context with Dr. King is confusing” because “the parts of Dr. King that we mostly focus on have to do with the fact that he wanted to bring people together, dreaming of a time when we would get beyond race.”
Meanwhile, she argued, “Black Lives Matter is all about race,” and the movement “is rooted in Marxism, in conflict theory.” (BLM co-founder Garza has described herself as a Marxist.)
We in Arizona have learned to watch over our schools carefully. (See last week’s video and blog from one Chandler mom who took a stand against the sexually charged books in her elementary school after her 11-yr-old brought one home.)
Stay the course, Arizona Women of Action! We’re standing up for the American Dream, like Rev. Dr. King did!
King’s “I have a Dream” speech still applies to ALL Americans today:
“I say to you today, my friends, 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.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’
“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.”
Yes. The American Dream is the vision for us who love this country and hope for ALL its people to thrive. King would say the ONLY thing to judge a person by is the “content of their character”—NEVER that what “Matters” about “Lives” is any color at all.