On Martin Luther King

What does a white man say today without sounding contrived, arrogant, dismissive, racist, or pandering? I'm not sure I know, but here are my sentiments on the observation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday:

Cornel West is a Professor of Religion at Princeton University, recipient of the American Book Award and more than 20 honorary degrees. He has held positions at Yale University, Harvard University, and the University of Paris. He is one of America's preeminent social critics and he is also a black man. Has he fulfilled Martin Luther's dream of being judged by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin?

Has Colin Powell, a black man, who rose to become Secretary of State fulfilled Martin Luther's dream of equal opportunity?

Has Condi Rice, a black woman that has been promoted to Secretary of State (in spite of gross incompetence in her former post) managed to make a small withdrawal in the book of injustice from whitey?

I'm the last person on earth to be able to say, but it does seem that a few steps have been taken towards Martin Luther King's dreams.

But Martin Luther King wanted justice for everybody, not just for himself, and the privileged princes of industry are building thrones for themselves where you and I aren't allowed to sit, and K-street is a lunch counter where they're not serving poor people.

I wish I had answers to the corrupting influence of wealth and power on society, but I don't. I only know that spending ambition on power is every bit as character-destroying as being victimized by that power, for with power comes responsibility and consequently loss of personal freedom, so both the master and the slave lose.

I have read that Native Americans tried to dream white people out of existence but failed. I have never really understood what that meant until now. It seems we need a new dream and a new dreamer that can see a way out from under the yoke of our own self-domination through money before we are all made poor by our lust for wealth.

Money is the root of all evil and the route of all evil too, and it takes money to make slavery possible, to make women property, and to decline life-saving drugs to the poor. These things also require our willingness to either ride in the back of the bus, or not to care when someone else is forced to; and it takes a dream, and a dreamer, to make us risk the comfort of the tried for the potential of the true.

What a dreamer and a dream can do is make us love each other the way we were taught that we should.

The world needs a new dreamer.

The world needs a new dream.

And we'd be blessed if he were to fill Martin's shoes.