AN UNREALISTIC DREAM

Most folks are too young to remember the 60's with the separate drinking fountains, separate restrooms, separate restaurants, separate hotels, separate.... I remember a mob surrounding a house because a black family moved in. That is not really so hard to believe, except it was in Detroit, not Alabama. I remember our Navy football team being told one of our players could not eat where our bus had stopped in Maryland. I remember a Virginia lunch counter being fully occupied by black folks and seeing no food or drink. I remember a black Air Force General being refused service even though he was a guest of the Mayor of Pensacola, Florida. But of all the things I remember about the hateful treatment of Blacks, the most horrible was the day Martin Luther King, Jr. died. I wept. You see, I heard King give his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, and for a while, I actually believed it could come true, but the dream died with him.

Today we have a black President. Today is a holiday dedicated to the memory of Doctor King. Today there are roads and highways named for him throughout the land. If I were naive, I would probably believe that the dream was becoming a reality, but I am not, and it is not. Today, we have Black Miss America, Black Radio and TV stations, Black magazines and newspapers, and the worst of all, there are Black churches. As long as there is a focus upon color, the dream will never be possible. As long as there are hate mongers who earn their living by emphasizing differences, such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, it will not happen. We have had the Black Panthers, the Black Muslims, the Black Congressional Caucus, etc., all of which divide us by color. There is Black Pride, and there should be pride in one's heritage, but it ceases to be that when it is a rallying cry for division. Yes, we have come a long way, but I am afraid we have left the trail blazed by King, and have simply become a nation of racists, black and white.

The Apostle Paul had the right idea. In Galatians 3:28, he writes, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." He said that then, and I say this now, that there is neither Black nor White (or any other color), and that to feel superior to someone based up such differences is wrong. It is sin. Jesus prayed four times in John Seventeen that Christians would be one. In Acts 17:26, Luke tells us that God has "made of one blood all nations to dwell on all the face of the earth...." We do not have a race; we are a member of the human race, period!

I am afraid that although we have a Black President and a holiday celebrating the life of one of the greatest Americans in our history, the dream will never come to fruition. Few Blacks and even fewer Whites, even make an effort to judge a person by their character. By the time they have sifted through their race, gender, nationality, social-economic status, educational level, religion, and political views, they have decided their worth. The content of one's character does not even come into play until it is decided the person is just like them; then character is important. The dream must wait until the Lord returns and changes humanity into His own likeness. Until then, it is not going to happen.