(ThyBlackMan.com) “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” declared Martin Luther King at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, in 1963. Lincoln, exactly 100 years before, in the Gettysburg Address proclaimed, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” A “score” is 20. Four score and seven years before 1863 brings us to 1776 and the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Thus, the legendary struggle for Black equality is actually this nation’s, on again off again, attempt to live up to the core values enunciated at its inception. There would have been no Civil Rights movement if the Civil War had succeeded, and there would have been no Civil War if the Founding Fathers had followed through on the reasons offered for creating the nation. Recall Martin Luther King’s final words on the night before he left this earth. “All we ask is that you be true to what you said on paper!”
After the Civil War there was, in fact, a short-lived period of calm and reconciliation, Reconstruction, they called it, and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments were passed supposedly guaranteeing equality. And again, after the Civil Rights movement, there was a period of amity and cooperation between the races, dubbed the Second Reconstruction, during which the Civil Rights Law, the Voting Rights Act and the Affirmative Action regulations were put into place.
But the Second Reconstruction proved no more successful than the first. It too would fade only to be replaced by the mass incarceration of untold numbers of Blacks and Latinos which would eventually generate, what we are witnessing now, the Black Lives Matter movement.
Isn’t it ironic that the vast majority of those who died in the Civil War trying to preserve slavery were indigent Whites, impoverished because slavery made their labor unnecessary. Thus, they fought and died in a vain attempt to preserve the very thing that made them poor.
Likewise, the very same grass roots whites who battled tooth and nail to preserve segregation greatly benefitted once that repressive regime was ended, and copious investments and resources came pouring into the previously segregated Southern States.
Is not the same thing happening now? Angry young men clamoring to return to a past that impoverished their ancestors? Like their forefathers, they fight desperately in the trenches in a struggle that, ultimately, only benefits the welfare of a precious few others.
The United States is the Promised Land the, 3000 mile-long, 1500 mile-wide, nation possessed of abundant resources and hospitable climate at the center of the earth. For 400 years people have been streaming here from everywhere. Brutal treatment from the rulers aside, this has long been seen as the haven from the storm. Different peoples have come here, or been brought here, under a wide array of circumstances, and the native population nearly obliterated. But all, for the most part, see this as their home. And countless others are headed this way. We are the most powerful, the most influential, nation on earth by far. So, to the extent that we can live in peace and harmony, so too will the planet.
Here then is the question. Right now, at this very moment, are we facing what is, for all intents and purposes, shaping up to be a Third Reconstruction or are we on the cusp of a veritable Second Civil War? The choice is ours.
Staff Writer; Arthur Lewin
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