A Somber Martin Luther King Day
I wonder whether all states would have ended racial discrimination today if it weren't for the federal government and the courts putting an end to this disgrace! Martin Luther King's non-violent struggle for equality and civil rights should be an inspiration to all freedom-loving people, and to all who believe human life has the same dignity and value everywhere regardless of physical characteristics.
The deep South, which also happens to be so biblically drenched, might still be arguing for the separation of the races, if not for fewer rights for the non-whites.
For example, Mississippi couldn't just have a MLK holiday, so it added Robert E Lee's birthday celebration on the same day. Alabama's voters, in this past election, wanted to keep the article in their state's constitution that racially divides the schools into blacks & whites! Oh, yes, in the 21st century the majority of people in Alabama voted to keep such a provision on their books! Any questions?
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Civil Liberties-Democracy
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4 comments:
Who can argue that we are in a cultural divide? I could dismiss such an argument if there were only a few bigots here and there, but it seems that we are not advanced as we'd like to believe. We on the coastal states, and other metropolitan cities, may have a distorted view of America's racial bias and intolerance. The maistream media won't touch this sensitive subject.
Many Americans still believe in racial segregation, in the ideals of the ..Civil War, the confederate flag, in cultural monolithism, intolerant of diverse views, and in favor of a religious fervor that shuts out reason and science. Welcome to the America of day and night, of the Middle Ages and of modernity.
Christine, CA
I know that in Mississippi there was a big debate on what to do about the MLK holiday a few years ago. They didn't want to be stick out as a state that didn't want this as their state holiday, with all the bad publicity and possible boycot, but on the other hand a lot of people opposed to a "nigger's holiday"..... So, the figured out that if they added someone from the Civil War (a defender of the South's racial policies) it would be more acceptable--and it was, as many Mississippians only pay homage to Robert E. Lee today.
Stan
Did they really?!!! I understand that this provision in the Alabama state's constitution is legally moot, but it says a great deal about the people, does it not?
I'd be embarrassed if my state's constitution (Maine) had similar racial language, and although federal law would invalidate it, I would definitely want it OUT of my state's document. What a shame! You mean in 2004, 21st century America, the majority of the voters in Alabama had the chance but did not vote to repeal that stature?!!!! WOW!
Anderson, Portland, ME
I think you left out the reason the vote went the way it did in Alabama.
With the language out of the constitution several people -- including
the former Chief Justice of the Alabama supreme court stated it would
cause the courts to mandate a tax increase.
The people of Alabama weighed a long expensive legal fight and possible
tax increase with a moot clause.
See CNN
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