I make no secret of the fact that I'm a Republican. I disagree with much of President Obama's basic politics and I didn't vote for him in either election. However, I listened to a lot of commentary on the Inauguration Ceremonies today. It amazed me how many commentators made such a big deal that the public ceremonies fell on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
The "I Have A Dream" speech is amazing. Dr. King was an amazing man. (Years ago, I actually had the opportunity to talk with a man who knew Dr. King and was in a jail cell with the civil rights leader.)
But so many people on television today made a point to mention that Dr. King would be proud that an African-American is holding the highest office in our land.
I disagree.
The way I understand Dr. King's speech, he wanted people judged on their ability, their character, their achievements. I don't believe he'd be happy with the correlations made today because society is still making a big deal about the amount of pigment in President Obama's skin.
Until we lose those hyphens (African, Italian, German) and just see people as American, we haven't realized Dr. King's dream.
Lose the hyphens, America. Judge people by the quality of their character and not the quantity of their skin's pigmentation. Only then will we have achieved Dr. King's dream.
