Awakening from This Dangerous Sleep
Statement
Dear Friends,
Today, we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We will remember his legacy and his accomplishments, and many will talk of his "dream." But I don't want you to dream right now. Martin Luther King Jr. did not dream his life away. He lived his dream. It is not enough to dream. Any drunkard can do that.
When Martin Luther King Jr. finished his famous speech, we said "Hallelujah', and we went to sleep. We have grown apathetic when we should be angry. We sleep through the harvest, shamefully ignoring the reality of the problems around us.
There are 9,000 African-Americans killed every year, and 90 percent of them are killed by African Americans. Some use those numbers to cast shame upon African Americans. We have fallen into black self-condemnation. In reality, just as many white people are killed each year and the rate of "white-on-white" violence is nearly the same.
When we talk of "black on black" killings, we are asleep. We need to stop killing. I don't care if you are white or black. You should not be killed and your dead body left in the street for five hours. I don't care what color you are. It is wrong.
We are the most violent society on the face of the earth. Maybe we shouldn't even be talking about a "dream." Maybe we should say, "I had a nightmare today."
We are more anti-Muslim than anti-murder. Muslims are not killing us. We are killing us. Americans are killing Americans. That is the crisis.
We are asleep when we allow our so-called leaders to single out one group of Americans, pitting us against each other rather than seeking to lift us all up. And yet we sleep.
We should be angry that no one who drove the economy into the ditch went to jail. If you rob a 7/11 you will go to jail for life, but rob the U.S. Treasury.
We should be angry we have a broken grand-jury system that blindly exonerates police officers who break the law.
We should be angry the Missouri General Assembly won't even vote to expand Medicaid.
We should be angry the worst wide receiver in the NFL makes more than the best teacher in our schools.
We must awaken from this dangerous sleep. Too many who were blessed by Martin Luther King Jr. are asleep. I want to make sure you are awake. Folks of good will must stand up at this point in history. We must wake up and work to fix our communities and our country.
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