WayBack and Martin Luther King, Jr.


Accusations without merit
Pardon me, but I am going to skip the inauguration stuff. I'm tired of being labeled "racist" anytime I criticize the Imperious Leader. So on this MLK Day, join with me in turning the WayBack Machine to the very very first entry I posted on this blog.

Years ago, the Arizona Legislature put a proposal for Martin Luther King Day on the ballot.  Almost everyone thought it was a good idea, but there was a real question of which other holiday would have to be removed to pay for it.  The Legislature decided that Columbus Day would no longer be a state holiday.  Of course, this made the Italian Americans upset, and they gathered enough signatures for a competing bill to add MLK day and keep Columbus Day.  Still another ballot added MLK Day but did away with another holiday.  No one bill got enough votes to put MLK Day on the calendar with all the contradictory proposals.

Arizona was promptly labeled a racist state.  It lost quite a few major tourism events, including the chance to host the 1993 Superbowl.

Soon another proposal was made for MLK Day, and this time no competing proposals made it to the ballot.  This time around, no one wanted to risk MLK Day not passing, so there was only one proposal on the ballot. It passed overwhelmingly.

To my knowledge, Arizona is the ONLY state to ever put MLK Day to a public vote.

Twice.

And going by the raw numbers, MLK Day passed both times. 

Yet to hear many Americans, Arizona is STILL a racist state that doesn't care about minorities because it voted down MLK Day.

There's no doubt that tomorrow is historic. But we're still focusing on skin color, that is a mistake.

I still stand by what I said last year.

But as long as we have the WayBack Machine fired up, come with me to August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial.

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.

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 one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

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.

I have a dream today!

So let me say it again.

I believe with all my heart that liberty can not be given, it must be earned and defended. I oppose affirmative action because it is obviously racial quotas. I refuse to judge anyone by the color of their skin.

Dr. King's dream was worthy and honorable.

And it is not the dream that is at the heart of "civil rights" today.

I would fight for Dr. King's dream.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - January 19, 2009 at 03:41 PM  Tag


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