Rosary Fazende-Jones
Dr. XXXX
HIS 5031
My Dream:
Revisiting Civil Rights
One hundred and fifty years ago, this nation ended a civil war fought to preserve a country and free a people. Ninety-five years ago, this nation ratified a Constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. Fifty years ago, this nation passed laws to ensure equality for all citizens and residents. Many positive things have happened on the issue of human rights, but the work is not complete. People still suffer for their skin tones, for their genders, for their incomes, and for their loves, so we must push forward on human and civil rights, and not be lead backwards.
Backward, sadly, seems to be the way that this nation is moving in 2015. This last year has been a year of violence, of protest, and of calls for change. We have seen too much violence toward people of all colors. We have seen unarmed black teenagers shot; we have seen too many mass shootings at churches, at schools, at colleges, and at universities. We have seen people beaten and shot at protests and rallies. We have seen too much violence. We must all together work to stop and solve these assaults on the most basic of American rights: “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Declaration of Independence, US 1776).
Since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s powerful “I Have a Dream” speech of 1963, we have changed in positive ways, and yet we have remained the same in many ways. We have laws to protect voting rights, but we still see injustice at the voting booth. The American Civil Liberties Union relates that nineteen states have passed restrictions on voting rights in the last four years (“Voting Rights”). The Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 allowing states to limit who votes (“Voting Rights"). We have come to respect diversity, but we still see religion used to justify bigotry, just as it was used to justify slavery. Bakers and court clerks try to cloak their prejudices behind religion (Helsel; Rede; Stone). We have more women in the workforce, but we still see women fighting to maintain their bodily dignity. Statistics show one in five college women are sexually assaulted (Wallace). Women’s reproductive health is constantly under assault as the recent attacks on Planned Parenthood illustrate. These are not the things of which Dr. King dreamed.
Like Dr. King, I, too, have a dream. My dream is a simple one, but right now, it seems an impossible one. My dream is of an America where all people respect and honor each other’s rights and beliefs, an America where we respect each other’s views, and an America where we realize the power and value of cooperation. It is a dream of an America which, alas, does not currently exist.
Instead, we watch as the female president of Planned Parenthood is grilled, belittled, insulted, interrupted, and talked over by Republican Congressmen as if she is undeserving of their respect because her views are not theirs (Peralta). We hear a presidential candidate insult the impoverished for wanting handouts (Flegenheimer). We hear another candidate insult and tarnish a religion practiced by millions of Americans (Bradner). We hear shouts, insults, lies. We no longer discuss things civilly. We do not hear respect for one another’s rights or views. If we are strongest when united, then we are currently quite weak.
I dream of an America where all children are educated equally. I dream of an America where all children and adults have a truly equitable chance for fulfilling and successful futures. I wish the American dream were still a possibility for the majority of Americans and not just a select few. I wish for an America that recognizes poverty is not a sin and should not be a lifetime sentence.
Sadly, the “separate, but equal days” of Plessy vs. Ferguson have not been wiped out. Miss Brown may have won her case against the Topeka Board of Education, but today we see segregation, if not by skin color, then by income level. Today, we have “No Child Left Behind” and the “Race to the Top.” However, too many children have been left behind on that race to the top because they are children of poverty, of color, and of differing abilities. Too many children have been taught to test, but not to learn and not to think. We no longer respect questioning and thinking. We instill conformity, not creativity.
I dream of an America that accepts love in all its forms and respects a person’s identity unquestioningly. I dream of an America where religion in all its various shapes is respected, but also recognized as outside our government. I dream of an America that opens its collective heart to the plight of others, not one that shuts its wallet, closes its doors, and builds walls to keep those in need out.
In short, I dream of an America that does not exist, perhaps it has never existed, but I wish we would all dare to have that same dream. Maybe together we will can work to make that dream America because it is worth working and striving for. Only then will we Americans, all of us, be “Free at last! Free at last! / Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” (King).
Works Cited
Bradner, Eric. "Ben Carson Explains Concerns with a Muslim President.” CNN. Cable News
Network. 27 Sept. 2015. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
Declaration of Independence. National Archives and Records Administration. National
Archives and Records Administration. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
Flegenheimer, Matt. "Jeb Bush’s Remarks about Blacks Echo a Firestorm He Faced as
Governor." The New York Times. The New York Times, 2 Oct. 2015. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
Helsel, Phil. "Court Rules Baker Can't Cite Religion to Deny Cakes for Gay Couples." NBC News.
13 Aug. 2015. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
King Jr., Martin Luther. "I Have a Dream Speech." 28 August 1963. American Rhetoric: Top 100
Speeches. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
Peralta, Eyder. "6 Clips of Audio You Should Hear from The Planned Parenthood Hearing." NPR.
NPR. 29 Sept. 2015. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
Rede, George. "Sweet Cakes: Same-sex Discrimination Case Still Far from Settled despite Final
Order against Oregon Bakery." Oregon Live/The Oregonian. Advance Digital, 7 July 2015.
Web. 2 Oct. 2015
Stone, Geoffrey. "Kim Davis and the Freedom of Religion." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com. 2 Sept. 2015. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
"Voting Rights." American Civil Liberties Union. American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU
Foundation. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
Wallace, Kelly. "Study: Nearly 20% of College Freshmen Victims of Rape." CNN. Cable News
Network. 20 May 2015. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
