I was surprised this wasn't posted yet... Fifty years and two days ago, millions of people, of many races, many genders, and many backgrounds and cultures. Walked down Washington to protest the way African Americans were being treated. One of the most famous, influential people in my eyes made one of the most famous speeches there right in front of the man who freed all the African Americans, the Lincoln Memorial, about having a dream, a dream where a white and a black would sit at a table together and not worry about nationality. Despite the backlash, despite them facing vicious police dogs, firehoses that were turned on them that ripped bark off the trees they tried to protect themselves behind, despite arrests and beatings, they peacefully went on to the point where they were voted in for the same rights on the Civil Rights Act was passed. I said, five years ago when Obama became president, it was a monumental moment. Not because it was a democrat, not because the republicans lost, it was because it was a moment I believe would go down in history as the proudest moment for the United States so far. It was the first time an African American president, or any president mind you, of a different race other than white, was voted in. We have made long strides since that famous speech, and we still have a long way to go for now: I would like to listen, and remember, no matter what, where we came from, and how far we have to go. To remember this powerful moment.
While I agree that he earns respect for fighting, Im just gonna share a little something with information on Michael since most people seem oblivious to it. Better to have a wide understanding than to have half. link
Alright, I will face one at each paragraph: 1) A lot of people have changed their names to leave more of an impact. A lot of actors use false names for the same reason or they seem too foreign to bode well with the audience. It's not that big a deal, it happens a lot for the same reasons. 2) Eh... Even if it's true, the way he spoke it still rang powerfully in the minds of a lot of people. He was a powerful speaker and leader who knew how to stir a crowd and bring people to help his cause despite all the brutality they were facing. I compare him to Adolf Hitler and the way he spoke, how he always had a huge crowd in front of him and had the same powerful voice. Not saying Martin Luther King isn't like Hitler morality wise, but he had the same powerful way of speaking. Just think if he did, what would've happened. Malcolm X is a prime example, though he was a great leader in himself, and he changed after joining the Muslim religion. Another point in this is: He never was going to say that speech. It was in a dedication to him a few days ago. He was actually PREACHING about sins and other religion based things. Then someone hollered in the audience: "Tell us the dream." Or something to that effect, and he made that famous speech without finishing his original speech or trying to use it. He actually came from an African American church where if you don't participate, they think that they're doing something wrong, my mom went to a few herself. 3) You do know Helen Keller was also under surveillance because she was pro communist? That's the reason why it's so censored after her early years because she was very pro Communist. It was in one of my favorite books: "Lies My Teacher Told Me" where a historian looks at 13 different history books and writes down the full story of what happened behind the scenes. Communist doesn't mean Mother Russia and bombs, in a simple sense, Communist is a utilitarian state where everyone is equal and has the same foods and rights as everyone else. But it was twisted due to the people who ran the country. 4) You do know that every president except Nixon and I think Lincoln has had an affair in office. Nixon didn't because of his beliefs. (Yes, I see the irony of that.) Lincoln I can't remember why. Bill Clinton wasn't a big deal in the moral side because he wasn't the first nor last president to have an affair in office. Do we see them differently for their affairs? Do we see FDR, one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century differently because he had affairs? Do we see Woodrow Wilson, the men who stopped the first World War and tried to start the UN, yes, the United Nations, differently because he did that? John F. Kennedy hated African Americans and wanted to keep them as they are, but he is considered one of the best heroes of the country for his work against Communism and the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was Lyndon B. Johnson who pushed for that bill to be passed to have the Civil Rights Act, Wilson hated women and never wanted to give them rights, does that make his impact in the world any less than what it is today? Lincoln was pro slavery until way later in the war, the whole Civil War happened because of states rights, not because of freeing the slaves. Does that make his work any less of an impact? Truman outright was a cowboy who dropped two atomic bombs on Japan and killed 100,000 people in total, and lets not forget that there was radiation poisoning that killed tens of thousands of people for years later and the injuries that happened to the people who lived, he HATED the Japanese and wanted to show Russia what they had, he BRAGGED about it in meetings with them. Does that make him less of a hero than what he did and what happened after the war to establish peace? Everyone has skeletons in the closet, everyone has dark sides that they try to keep covered. It's a part of life, does it affect what they had done to make life better for people? No, it doesn't.
