Friday, April 04, 2008

If Not Today, We'll Try Again Tomorrow

Ever been to your local jail? I played a gig at the jail. 90% of my audience was black. Now there is no way that racism creates that kind of disproportionate number. There aren't enough racist cops on the street to do it and in this case, a large percentage of the cops ARE black.

Only poverty and a thug culture can create that number. This is a Chinese finger puzzle. The only way out is for one side to push TOWARD the other. Only the blacks can look at their culture and decide how best to change it. Many have. Ask Cosby.

At the other side, we can ALL work on the poverty trap.

How do we do that in a broken economy? I don’t know, but we’ll have to do it together or it won’t get done. Nothing will change.

Actions speak louder. Choices illuminate character. The wisdom of choice is not in how it makes us feel but in how it enables us to change for the better.

Reverend Martin Luther King was a fighter for the spirit as was Gandhi. If we are to stay on the road to social justice, we need a fighter for the spirit.

Does our judgment hold us back?

It is not just about freedom from Jim Crow, but from judgments that imprison our hearts and separate us from each other. We forge our own chains that way. When will we spiritually understand the deep meaning of "Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

Racism doesn't end the day we quit hating each other for what we are; it ends the day we start loving each other for what we are. We can break those chains.

We have to get the mote out of our own eye first. Then get on the bus.

Today we celebrate the legacy of Reverend Martin Luther King. We'll all get through this. If we can't do it today, we'll try again tomorrow.

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