Newspaper Page Text
Page16
“Keeping The Dream Alive”
continued from page 15
their campuses because we do qualify,
not because we do not meet the
requirements. It’s unfortunate that
“the” president, in what I consider dis
concerted and contradictory thinking,
asserted Wednesday, January 15, the
birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr., that the University of Michigan’s
admissions policy is “unfair, divisive,
and impossible to square with the
constitution.” Unfair to whom, we
might ask? We must keep Dr. King’s
dream alive by demanding that affir
mative action exists. We know what
happens when it does not.
For many years, before, during,
and after the more active civil rights
movement (Right now, we are still in
the “movement.” You know that the
“movement” is not over!). We have
had/still have African American col
lege graduates, some even with mas
ters degrees, in menial jobs because we
did not/do not, in many cases, have
equal access to employment opportu
nities.
Not only should we keep Dr.
King's dream alive, but, my friends we
need to wake up and stand up for
what is right. Dr. King had the 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. We must keep the
dream alive by waking up — waking
up to speak out against the United
States going to war with Iraq or North
Korea. I'm not saying that we should
allow terrorism or the proliferation of
weapons, or fail to come to the aid of
our allies in the name of justice. I am
concerned that we are aggressive for
the right reasons and that we demon
strate concern for the welfare of our
people, our children and others.
War robs us of parents, children,
education, healthcare, and so many
other important things. Dr. King
spoke out in 1967 against the Vietnam
War. He expressed that America’s
involvement in the Vietnam War was
diverting the country’s resources from
ending poverty and injustice at home.
We need to wake up in 2003 and let it
be known that our involvement in a
war today would divert much needed
funds from the country’s education
budget and other social improvements.
Let us keep the dream alive by
waking up to the realization that we
must accurate wealth in the African
American community by investing,
not by consuming. Financial planning
The History of Black Americans in Augusta, Georgia
expert Brooke Stephens tells us in her
book, Talking Dollars and Making
Sense, that despite our new earning
capacity, most African American fami
lies have not reached economic parity
with white families. She explains that
we are more than a century behind
other groups in the wealth-building
process of earning, saving, investing,
owning property, and passing on assets
to the next generation. Despite the
major gap that still exists between
black and white incomes, some of that
gap is caused by our own excessive and
reckless spending
and marginal ;
financial values.
We need to
wake up and figure
out why African
Americans control
over half a trillion
dollars and we are
not building
wealth. Back in
1967, Dr. King
stated that “civil
rights laws are not
enough. The emer
gency we're facing
now is economic.”
That’s still a reality
40 years later.
Wake up!
It’s a hard fact
to face, but money
does make the
world go round.
What we need to
accomplish today,
we need capital to
make it happen.
We have homeless
ness in this country
and in Africa —
we need money to
build housing. We
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Rev. Dr. Martin Lutber King, Jr.
want to ensure that our political can
didate gets elected — we need money
to launch an effective campaign. We
want to find a cure for HIV/AIDS —
we need money to do the research. We
want to send all of our children to
college or technical school — we need
money to pay the tuition.
To keep the dream alive, we must
wake up and get really serious about
achieving economic development and
developing entrepreneurs among
African Americans. That’s the final
frontier we must conquer. Those of us
in a position to help must mentor;
we've got to reach back and pull 2
brother or sister up. Each one must
teach one — or more. The actor
Raymond St. Jacques poignantly cap
tured this thought of economic devel
opment when he said: “The funda
mental difference is the attitude white
people have about acquiring wealth
and the attitude black people have.
White people know that wealth brings
power, so they do everything possible
to gain more wealth and thus more
power. Black people, too often, seek
wealth to have enjoyment, to buy
pleasure. There’s a big difference
between power and pleasure, and since
power lasts longer than pleasure,
whites have gained control of practi
cally everything.”
What can you and I do to keep
the dream alive — to control our own
destiny? We can wake up and teach
our families to accumulate wealth. We
can start by becoming greater investors
and less consumers; we can start an
investment club in our own communi
ty, in our own families; we can make
the extra effort to support a black
owned business, especially by doing
something as simple as buying our
next book at a black owned bookstore -
or from a black owned bookseller ver
sus always getting every book at
Amazon.com or at Sam’s discounted
price. We might have to pay a few
pennies more, but the end results will
be worth it.
Also, we must wake up and accu
mulate wealth and power by being a
part of a collaborative effort. There are
many opportunities to collaborate
within our community. I am very
proud to report that my sorority, Delta
Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., endowed a
$1 million scholarship at Howard
University, the birthplace of the soror
ity, last week during our 90th founders
day anniversary. We are asking our
members to contribute the necessary
funds over a two year period to endow
this million dollar effort. This will give
us the power to award scholarships
perpetually at Howard University, thus
educating young minds forever. We
started with an endowed scholarship
fund at Howard, and, hopefully, the
effort will spread to other HBUs.
All of us gathered here this morn
ing have a wonderful opportunity to
collaborate with the brothers of Alpha
Phi Alpha fraternity on funding the
Martin Luther King, Jr., National
Memorial in Washington, D.C. The
National King Monument is a project
of the fraternity’s MLK, Jr. National
Memorial Foundation. The King -
memorial, prominently located on the
tidal basin between the Lincoln and
Jefferson memorials, will be the first
such tribute to an African American
man in the nation’s capital. The archi
tect has created the plans and the
design will convey three fundamental,
reoccurring themes of Dr. King’s life:
justice, democracy and hope. In order
to make this design a reality by
November of this year, financial con
tributions are needed. Let us grasp
this opportunity to support the
National King Memorial in
Wiashington as a wake up call to keep
the dream alive.
The dream was articulated by Dr.
King, yet it is larger than one man,; it
was a prophetic vision given to him by
a much higher power. It is our inher
ent responsibility to make the dream a
reality — each one of us — doing our
part to make it happen. Keeping the
dream alive: achieving equal access to
education and employment, accumu
lating wealth, and working collabora
tively with each other — yes, we can
keep the dream alive. We must keep
the dream alive. We will keep the
dream alive. Today, tomorrow, and
forever! :