The Good Doctor.

The late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [not to be confused with Garlic or Piccolo Daimaoh :D] has left us a legacy of tolerance and brotherhood. I would also like to think he instilled in us a sense of justice as well. Regrettably, I know better.

Somehow, his message of equality for all under the American banner got garbled into "reparations" and "diversity". Despite the fact that his message was a simple as the YYH Rescue Yukina story arc.

All the good doctor wanted was respect between Americans. As a Christian, I doubt he really cared what color you were back then--he just wanted to heal the breach caused by slavery and segregation.

As an American, the good doctor spoke to his brothers and sisters, fellow orphans and throwaways brought into the arms of lady Liberty, and humbly demanded that he be acknowleged as one of them, rather than an outsider.

Yet now we, who have replayed the importance of his legacy only a million times every February, and one day on every January; we have distorted his message to mean that we need buses.

[rant to the unordained reverend: with all due respect for your past work with the good doctor, the CARTA nonsense was not a racial issue, but a "Charleston is CHEAP as HFIL" issue. furthermore, most people--black, white, or others--drive cars. I was really touched that you actually came on the bus, albeit with outdated bus jokes. despite the fact that it was a obvious publicity stunt for RainbowPUSH, btw. it made me kinda late for work also, which should concern someone protecting "equal opportunities, equal jobs".... /rant mode off]

We would rather let Mugabe and Gaddafi roam free to torment innocent people than admit a...white Southern guy...was right. If Senator Rangel was any indicator, black men are being sent to die.

Now, the Senator, and even the militant idiot after him that said America wasn't his country(good on you. now please leave.), had every right to talk out of their anal cavities. That's what makes this country great.

The good doctor protested Vietnam. And he showed more class and dignity than many who protested. Because the good doctor loved America.

I love America. I consider myself blessed to be an Afrimerican. It's the greatest joy in the world to wake up every morning knowing that I can wear what I want, I can think as I choose, and that Cartoon Network has Toonami. :) It's wonderful to know that I live in the only country with a ritualistic war game[in which the Carolina Panthers are virgins to the Super Bowl!!!! Even if they lose, watch those tourism dollars roll in!] that even German war generals were leery of.

[consider that the Eagles best quarterback "played ball" with a broken rib, and last year with a broken leg. consider the fact that the only country with a meaner sport is the UK, and we haven't been in a serious war against them since 1812.]

I like Japan, and I want to do business with Japan as well as visit Japan. I wish Japan well on its journey toward sovereign national righteousness. But I will not lose sleep if I don't live there--because I was born in the greatest country on the planet, the United States of America.

The good doctor fought[nonviolently] and spoke on behalf of my mother(then a child). He spoke to the souls of his fellow citizens, to end their willful blindness to the hatred being focused on him and on my mother. He spoke to the American folk soul[that Jacksonian nature that bands us all together during such horrors as WW2, despite all internal conflicts] and said "Hey! I'm one of you! We are Americans. Some of us went to Liberia, saw that it sucked eggs, and came back here to be Americans. We aren't leaving any time soon, and it's far too late to send us back to cultures that are alien to us now. Did your fathers fight in the Civil War for nothing? I think not. So accept us as equals, and let us live together as brothers and sisters."

That's all he wanted. That was his dream. And the United States of America--however flawed it is--is the only country where his vision can come to pass.

The US was built, not on ancient bloodlines of nobility, but on line upon line, precept upon precept. America is an idea, a vision, a dream, a promise, a hope.

Consider Islam. It's an idea. The sick musings of a misogynist with various deities and primitive rituals mixed in for flavor. Entire civilizations and peoples have been consumed by it and its followers for 1400 years. Any idea that opposes it must die.

I'm an American. If America dies, I die. If America dies, all "black" Americans die--along with the "whites", "reds", and "yellows", as well as the "browns". If America dies, the good doctor's dream will die--the simple dream that the Tarukanes of the world will be punished, and the Yukinas of the world protected.

In America, if some idiot commits an honor killing, said idiot will be lucky if he or she spends life in prison. And I like it that way. I like the fact that all philosophies are respected. That puts them all in the marketplace of ideas, and allows Joshua 24:15 to have real meaning.

Why would G-d(aka the name that cannot be spoken, the tetragrammaton, and various other epithets) give humans free will? [anyone bringing up Abraham, Isaac, and the sacrifical slab will get such a PINCH.] Perhaps he wants us to make up our minds about him. Each of us has to decide who we may serve, and here in America, that decision was explicitly outlined as a Right that each human has. It's a choice.

Would I like to see people with universal health coverage? But what if we don't need it? How much does it cost?

What about $7/hour as minimum wage? Would you like not being able to get a job at Mickey Ds until you're thirty?

For me, I like working. Not so much the tasks, as the simple fact that what I do translates into a paycheck. And if I were a teenager again, I'd think that keeping the MW as is ensures that while the paycheck from Mickey Ds will be small compared to a real job, less of that tiny check will be eaten by Uncle Sam and FICA than if I got the bigger one that Wes Clark cannot politically deliver. [no way on earth. I can see the CEOs of every retail and fast food company in this country forming a massive lobbyist bloc to stop him.]

It's the choices you make that determine your path in life, and that's why the good doctor loved America. And I love America, too.

I couldn't imagine living in a country that acknowledges that you are a free individual, then saying "this isn't my country." If America is wrong, say so. If you think America is wrong, who's stopping you from speaking your piece? Did our government hunt down the nitwit that wished a million Mogadishus on the fellow citizens risking their lives so that said idiot could wish them a million Mogadishus? No.

I can see why people hate Dubyatron. He's that character that masters pointing out the obvious. Example: all the losers in London are protesting the Iraq situation. His only comment: "Freedom is wonderful." Subtext: "Now the Iraqis get their first taste of what we have gorged on for decades."

Consider an analogy. [a bit of a fan fiction what if.]

A young Yukina has befriended a dog demon named Sesshoumaru, whom she had nursed back to health. The pair meet a pegasus, a descendant of the Pegasus that Belle...whatever--the name of him's on the tip of my tongue--rode. B., after surviving many trials, wanted to be acknowledged as a child of the gods. [in this case, the Greek asylum of Olympus.] So B. urged Pegasus toward Olympus. Except that Peggus bucked B. off, and made B. a cripple for the rest of his life.

In any case, the descendant of this Pegasus meets with young Yukina and her buddy Fluffy, the Lord of the Western Lands on the Island of Ice Maidens. The animal neighs to the girl about his quest to fulfill his ancestor's dream--to stand atop Mount Olympus. The young ice maiden and the inuyasha mount the pegasus, and they fly to MO...

...which may as well be Mount Everest or Mount Fatoum[Samurai Jack reference] for all its difficulty. During this great climb, the pegasus dies. Undaunted, Yukina resolves to lug the winged horse carcass to Olympus; since this is impossible for her, Fluffy carries the dead beast on his back, wondering why she wants to do this. Close to the top, both of them are near exhaustion. Despite this, Yukina won't give up; Sesshoumaru suggests that they eat the pegasus in order to survive the final part of the climb. They do this, and reach Olympus, to the shock of the Greek gods.[think that Fluffy and Yukina are, to them, mere mortals.] And now they, for the first time, can taste the ambrosia and nectar that these gods eat daily. Now the spirit of that dead pegasus can rest, knowing that through him, his fellow pegasii and B. can know that mortals stood on the Mount.

This is the triumph that awaits the Iraqis. This is the hope that resides in the hearts of men. This is freedom. This is victory. The ambrosia and nectar of peace and prosperity.

It's preached a million times a week in "black" churches across America. The good doctor preached and died for equality.

People, if some criminal idiot can inspire us to riot and protest "no justice, no peace", then why not the law-abiding, who want nothing more than to enjoy the rights in their country that we take for granted in ours?

Think of Langston Hughes. He said to hold fast to dreams. Think of Maya Angelou. We are the hope and the dream of the slave. America is the dream, one as old as Nimrod and as young as my baby nephew.

The good doctor had a dream. A dream that we'd all be able to live as brothers and sisters, as a real family. In his time, we were broken; his hope was that we become whole. The good doctor died, and he knew he was going to die; yet he said that we as a people will get to that promised land of milk and honey, ambrosia and nectar, peace, prosperity, and love for all mankind.

The Unspeakable One didn't disrupt the Tower because he hated our ambition. If that were the case, he could have smited them. Scratch that. He said he couldn't stop them, and my guess is that he wanted that ambition directed elsewhere. Consider that any effort to bring earth to heaven is doomed, yet bringing heaven to earth is encouraged. Hmm...perhaps the MHoH wants to come to us....

Yes, it is impossible to bring heaven to earth. Let's do it anyway.

We always say, "Remember the Dream", when thinking of the good doctor. I say, "Quit killing the Dream. Quit hating the Dream. Quit damning the Dream." Again, the good doctor is dead, but the dream is still there. We ALL must hang together, hold fast to the dream, and carry those bones to the Mount, or assuredly, we'll all hang separately.

Don't tread on my dream.