And then Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came along, and he stirred things up a bit. He, along with Rosa Parks and other colored citizens of Montgomery, Alabama, organized and led the Montgomery Improvement Association and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He also joined with Charles K. Steele and Fred L. Shuttlesworth in establishing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which sought to demolish racial injustice with nonviolence and civil disobedience. As he continually pushed for integration in public schools, repeatedly failed, and was put in jail during anti-segregation protests, he never gave up, refusing to cease his fight for the important cause of civil rights, no matter how hopeless it seemed. Hate crimes against the Negros worsened and increased in frequency, so Dr. King strengthened his political acts and protests that much more.
On August 28, 1963, 200,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to hear King's famous and forever known "I Have a Dream" speech. The speech sparked both great exultation and disapproving fracas alike towards the man. Five years later, our nation's leader of the civil rights movement was assassinated by James Earl Ray, carrying the hope of freedom among all peoples right along with him to eternal glory.
I love Martin Luther King Jr. very much, and I'm looking forward to meeting him in heaven. He was a man of amazing faith, integrity, perseverance, and courage. I can only imagine what my life would be like today without him, even as a white girl. I would not be permitted to even speak to the girl who is now my best friend, because she is black. My heart would be filled with hatred towards my brothers and sisters of color because I would have been raised to believe that they are worthless. I cannot imagine my mother, a beautiful Christian woman who truly treats each of God's creatures as just that and is strongly against prejudice of any kind, instilling that belief into my mind. But if it were not for my good pal Martin, this would not be my mother's fault or even my grandmother's, but rather the fault of those who began the passing down of that ugly and cruel lie many years ago.
Today I can say without a doubt that Dr. King is happy. Not only is he in the presence of the Lord, but he also has the blessed opportunity to see all of his hard work pay off here on earth. Racism definitely still exists, but when looking back on his renowned speech it is easily agreeable that many of his dreams have been fulfilled or nearly fulfilled. Racial injustice was a battle that many likely thought would never be won, but today I know I live in a country where the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners are able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood, people, for the most part, are not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, and little black boys and black girls are able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
We are living in different times now. Racial injustice is not near as big a problem as it was in the 50's and 60's, but another form of injustice has been on the rise for the past 38 years. Whether we are willing to admit it or not, a vicious genocide is sweeping our nation, and it is called abortion. In 2008 alone, 1.21 million homicides of unborn children were committed in America - that's 3,315 a day, 276 an hour (going on a 12-hour shift), 4 a minute (each time my synchro team skates our program once through, 10 American children have their life stolen) - and not one murderer has been charged or convicted. Planned Parenthood, America's largest abortion chain aka slaughterhouse, currently receives $362.3 million dollars of our tax money each year. There is abundant evidence both scientifically and biblically that a baby is a human being from the moment of conception. But still this continues, rarely mentioned among the mainstream population, stirring heated controversy as to whether or not this crime can be considered health care.
And I woke up this morning worried about my finals.
I recall Dr. King's legacy and am deeply inspired by his boldness, determination, and martyrdom. I learn in history class about the way blacks were treated at this time and I am appalled to hear that millions of human beings were accepting of this discrimination, and would even fight for it. Then I realize that the same thing is going on right now. And I am twice as appalled when I see videos like this one. I think the battle this world is constantly waging is pretty obvious. "And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14)." In Dr. King's time, that truth manifested itself as discrimination masquerading itself as a "separate but equal" policy. Now, abortion is masquerading itself as health care, a woman's right to choose what she does with "her" body (Since when have a mother and her child shared the same body?).
I'll touch on the subject of women's rights: I am a woman, and darn proud of it. I believe that I am called to clothe myself with strength and dignity for the very reason that I am a woman. (My favorite woman alive is Gianna Jessen, a strong and dignified activist for women's rights and life.) As a young Christian woman who has never had sex or an unintended pregnancy but understands in full what it's like to be a woman, what it's like to have to make huge sacrifices to give birth to a child that may be an inconvenience at the time, especially how hard it is to do so when you were raped, this is not your fault and this is your rapist's child, and what it's like to live in the world today, who loves being a woman and thinks women are valuable and precious and deserve equal rights just as everyone else but is not a feminist, who is considered to be quite motherly even as a teenager and believes motherhood is the most glorious thing a woman can do, I believe with all my heart that abortion has nothing to do with women's rights. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
So I want to be the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. of the pro-life movement. I want to fight by nonviolence until I die for it, all the while hoping and dreaming of a day when this kind of injustice no longer exists, when the next generation learns about this time in history and is appalled that it ever occured. As the Reverend said, "Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"
I have a dream that one day on the sunny shores of Florida, a mother who battled uncertainty and turmoil when she was pregnant with her rapist's child will be able to sit down with her beautiful son and truly love him, with no regrets of her decision to keep him, making sure he knows that it is not his fault he is the product of a rapist and should not have to suffer the consequences.
I have a dream that one day even the state of California, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, with the highest rate of prenatal murders nationwide, will be transformed into an oasis of life and love.
I have a dream that my future children will one day live in a nation where abortion is unheard of, where people understand the value of intimacy and human life as God created it to be.
I have a dream today!
"I have a dream today that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; 'and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.'"
