March On Washington

Condolences To The Family Of Trayvon Martin: Racial Justice Has A Long Road To Travel!

Ronald 12 Comments

The decision of the jury in the George Zimmerman Trial in Sanford, Florida, finding him not guilty in the killing of 17 year old Trayvon Martin, is a tragedy of major proportions, and my condolences to the family of Martin, who will not see racial justice in his death!

There is no question that racial profiling was part of the mindset of George Zimmerman, and that IF Trayvon Martin had been white, this tragedy would not have happened!

So as this author said just yesterday, any young black male from age 14 to 35 is an endangered species, and any one who has a racist intent can feel free to shoot and kill such a person and claim self defense!

So it means that every black parent has to live in constant fear of the demise of their sons because we have a crazy system which allows the use of firearms by people who should not have such firearms, and with the recognition that fifty years after the March on Washington, racial justice still has a long road to travel!

Just because we have a black President does not mean that the fight for racial justice, racial equality, and equal treatment under the law has been won, far from it! It is clear that battle will continue long into the future, but this is not the time to despair, but instead to regroup and organize for the struggle ahead for all decent people in this nation!

Georgia Congressman John Lewis: The Connection Between Voting Rights And Gay Rights

Ronald 9 Comments

Georgia Congressman John Lewis has been a major civil rights leader, connected with Martin Luther King, Jr,, and had his head cracked while marching for voting rights in the South.

As a Congressman since 1987, Lewis has been a voice of conscience, and was a rare case of a politician condemning the Defense Of Marriage Act , when it passed Congress in 1996, and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, afraid to take a stand against it, due to his reelection campaign of that year for the Presidency.

At that time, Lewis compared the concept of interracial marriage,. which had been illegal until 1967, and said gay marriage was no different than interracial marriage, that anyone should be able to marry the person he or she loves!

So Lewis was devastated by the decision of the Supreme Court, negating Section 4 of the Voting Rights Acts of 1965, while thrilled by the decisions of the Supreme Court allowing for gay marriage in California, and for federal recognition of gay marriage, relating to its legality, and the right of gay couples to benefits and privileges of married couples!

Lewis has felt all kinds of emotion in the past two days, and he has stated eloquently, that voting rights guarantees that took nearly a century to accomplish, and were in place for almost half a century,. are now gone, and will it take another century to restore the guarantee of voting rights without any discrimination?

So it is hard not to feel the pain and emotional turmoil this great man, an icon of civil rights, is going through at age 73! God bless him and protect him for many more years of devoted service to civil rights and human rights!

We will see him again as the one surviving major civil rights leaders who participated 50 years ago in the March On Washington on August 28, 1963, which will be reenacted on August 24, 2013!