Abandoning the dream

Evil must be identified and confronted, if it is to be stopped. Any so-called civil rights leader who has stoked the ongoing insurrection in Ferguson, Missouri, has revealed their true nature. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton abandoned Martin Luther King Jr.’s great dream long ago.

They now embrace a new vision of perpetual race hatred and self-imposed disenfranchisement. They lie by telling impressionable youth of all colors that individual choice, effort and conscience do not matter. They say that race determines all outcomes.

They demonize anyone within their community whose life story proves that personal responsibility and hard work can turn anyone’s aspiration into a better life. They lie to children, stealing from them their very hope. In its place, they offer the anonymity of the group and the easy answers of collective victimization, entitlement and vengeance.

This is a betrayal of every American, living or dead, who actually believes in the hope for a color-blind society. Most of all, it is a betrayal of those confused young innocents whom they lead astray. These demagogues should, indeed, be judged by the content of their character.

Ralph Ginorio

Coeur d’Alene