More than a dream

            A few years ago, a radio station was honoring the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by playing all of his recorded speeches.

            Because I'd read excerpts from the "I Have a Dream" speech, I thought I knew the main facts about the late civil rights leader. But I discovered there was so much more to Dr. King than the "free at last" line.

            His speech about talking to his young daughter about why she couldn't go to the local amusement park "Fun Town" is heartbreaking. There was only one reason his 4-year-old daughter couldn't go to the park – the color of her skin.

            Most of us have visited Disneyworld, Fiesta Texas and other amusement parks and we know how much fun those places are.

            But not Yolanda King.

            She was told she couldn't go to the most fun place in town because she wasn't a white child. I cringe thinking about the many parents who've given the same humiliating talk to their children, that they aren't the right color or the right sex or the right nationality to enter places.

            Because these prejudices still exist, tolerance and acceptance are lessons we should be teaching our children, and MLK Day is a great place to start. But instead of concentrating on exactly what King stood for in his life, we've turned the January holiday into a clearance and mark-down sales event.

            That we've done so is ironic, especially when studying King's  1967 "Beyond Vietnam" speech.

            He said that when machines and computers, profits and property rights are more important than people, we're in deep trouble. Almost 50 years later, I'd say he's right.

            Many people will text a friend instead of having a face-to-face conversation. We watch or listen to something on an electronic device while eating meals, getting dressed, driving to and from work and even when exercising.

            In the evenings, we're glued to our flat-screen TVs, iPads or laptops instead of thinking about what's just or intolerant in life or engaging in meaningful dialogues with each other.

            And we've convinced ourselves that hash tags and smiley faces are a suitable replacement for a person-to-person smile or hug. We don't need computer-generated road signs when we can look in a friend's eyes and see despair, happiness or grief.

            King believed that through meaningful dialogue with each other, face to face, we would see we are more alike than different. He believed deeply in God and that one day people of color would be free.

            But he wasn't a dreamer. He was a realist.  

            King knew about the deplorable slums in Memphis and Atlanta. He knew people of color were lynched to the applause and cheers of white people. He knew he couldn't sit in the front of the bus without being arrested and then beaten to a pulp.

            He knew he had to demand change and he did so from the very beginning of his career in the 1950s.

            King stood alongside the Freedom Riders in 1961 and 1962.  He was there in 1963 when the Civil Rights Bill was passed. And he was silenced in 1968 when an assassin's bullet took his life much too soon.

            On Monday, when the media is saturated with advertisements for blow-out sales and most of us are home relaxing on a paid holiday, remember the words of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

            To paraphrase:  Some things have always been wrong and they will always be wrong. But some things are right and will always be right.

            Justice and equality for all are ideals that are always right.

 This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.