Equal Opportunity
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech to a massive group of civil rights marchers gathered around the Lincoln Memorial. This is the most quoted line from his speech, etched in the consciousness of this country.
“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.”
On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill. He said the following in a speech to the Nation.
“The purpose of this law is simple; it does not restrict the freedom of any American, so long as he respects the rights of others. It does not give special treatment to any citizen. It does say the only limit to a man's hope for happiness and for the future of his children shall be his own ability.”
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled today that race-based admissions violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. The progressive corporate media reacted like the Emancipation Proclamation had just been overturned. Reading and listening to the unfounded outrage expressed by these well intended constitutional ignoramuses was astounding. Without a doubt it looked like they never heard the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. or President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The two black justices on the court couldn’t have been further apart. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the newest addition to the court, opined that the ruling was “truly a tragedy for us all” based on “ostrich like” logic. Yet she was appointed to the court by Joe Biden who made it specifically clear he would appoint a black woman to the court should a vacancy occur. Does anyone recall him stating that he would select the most qualified individual? Shouldn’t merit not race be the foundation for any admission to the court or a college, Madame Justice?
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority, "Individuals are the sum of their unique experiences, challenges, and accomplishments. What matters is not the barriers they face, but how they choose to confront them. And their race is not to blame for everything—good or bad—that happens in their lives.”
A majority of Americans, about 70%, oppose the concept that one’s race eclipses merit or ability in education or employment. Folks have a keen sense of fairness and intuitively know that race should not be a determining factor when pursuing the American Dream. Doctor Ben Carson’s race had nothing to do with his becoming the world’s most renown pediatric brain surgeon. Maybe the loudmouthed race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson forgot that.
The real problem lies within the K-12 education system. Too many inner-city schools have inferior facilities populated with teachers who aren’t committed to the minority community. Further, the fabric of the black family, often in poverty, with absentee fathers has a deleterious effect on educating the young. Chaos is inherent in these poor families despite millions spent in government assistance. On the other hand, there are also a lot of white children living in poverty that have as much chance of getting a quality education as the inner-city youth. Might be a good idea to stop blaming “systemic racism” and reform current the K-12 educational structure to give all the Nation’s children an equal shot at Harvard.
Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, is a bomb thrower when it comes to educational reform. This know-it-all who spent exactly one semester as a teacher, now claims to be the all-knowing seer, sage and expert on what’s good for the Nation’s young. She’s a high profile, left wing political activist who promoted positions on abortion, government-controlled healthcare, legal status for illegal immigrants and sanctuary policies. The only time she spoke up about school children was when she lobbied long and hard to keep the Nations’ schools closed during the pandemic, then later stated that she might have been too zealous. She is the epitome of a progressive, elite out of touch, loon. Leaders like her contribute to the dearth of educational opportunity and reform. Randi is too busy being a big shot in the Democratic Party to pay attention to her union job.
Finally, there’s the clueless prompter reader, who after his speech expressed his outrage at the SCOTUS decision and was asked if the Supreme Court was “rogue”. He replied, “This is not a normal court.” Since when is it normal for one ethnic group to get preferential treatment over another when it comes to opportunity? On MSNBC Thursday with Nicole Wallace, he confused the Declaration of Independence with the United States Constitution when he offered this gem, “the Constitution says: We hold these truths to be self-evident, all men and women are created equal, endowed by their creator” (Declaration of Independence) and that ruling that there isn’t a right to privacy in the Constitution and states can make their own laws on abortion in Dobbs is “giving states power that we fought a war over in 1860.” Huh?
Joe doesn’t know what he’s talking about and more importantly really doesn’t care, otherwise he’d understand what Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lyndon B. Johnson were talking about.