Posted by Dianna Tafazoli
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”
Dr. King had very high hopes for the youth of America and the youth of the world. He dreamed of young people having an oasis of freedom, justice and equality where their living would be a vehicle to propel the nation into a new day. This new day would represent hope and freedom to excel and exhault one man to another. Dr. King dreamed that the bells of freedom would ring throughout every hamlet, mole hill and mountain of our nation and without the oppression of racism depressing the poor and people of color - the nation could truly live out the true meaning of its creed. Today, racism is still alive and well, but the cry of the moment is about more than racism, it is a cry to save our young people from themselves. It is not the police of the 60s beating and brutalizing young people all over the country and turning dogs loose that is heightening the death toll of our young people. Young people are organizing to kill each other as if in a game of chance, a game of who reaches the “grave” first. Where is the love? In our nation’s capital, young people demonstrate about curfews and not having enough time to themselves to conduct their business at night. Some say that 10:00 pm is too early to go home. What do the parents say and what is the business of a young person on the streets of Washington, DC and any other town or city after 10:00 pm. Dr. King’s dream was to educate and become more socially, economically and politically aware so that one might be a good servant of the nation. That lesson is not learned in the streets of any city after 10:00 at night. Early to bed and early to rise should be the mantra for young people so that they might surely become wise. Tell me your thoughts.
Posted by Dianna Tafazoli
Crime in the nation’s capital is at an all time high. The newspapers are carrying front line stories about murder in Washington. There are few things that happen in Washington that escape the front pages of major news outlets because after all it is the nation’s capital, the heartbeat and the pulse of the country. Washington is the home of the President, the seat of Congress and government, the streets where you find the World Bank, the Export-Import Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Washington is NEWS. Washington is a place where many faceless, nameless victims fall prey to homicide daily without mention anywhere; perhaps, buried among a few slithers of news in the Metro session only catching the eye of the most scrutinizing reader. What kind of victim merits the front pages of the Post and what must the qualifications be of the perpetrators to make the news?” What constitutes the bitterness of man against man and why is it so easy for one man to take another man’s life? Is there no value placed on one’s own life and that existence is fleeting at best? Is the desire to shed blood merely an innate instinct of which man struggles to overcome yet never fully achieving? Is man merely an uncivilized, unsocialized beast parading as a high functioning “DNA” different from lower class animals? How do the numbers compare for animals of the lower class killing just to kill versus the number of highly functioning humans killing just to kill?
“But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm thereshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” -March On Washington Speech -1963
Dr. King was a peace loving man, a man of justice, great honor and respect for all mankind. We fought to get his birthday honored as a national holiday and we extol his legacy. Each day that a black man raises his sword to kill other than in self defense, he spits in the face of Dr. King and all those who died so that he might have freedom, that he might move in the society as a man equal to any man. Each time that any man irrespective of his skin color raises his sword to shed another man’s blood other than in self defense he mocks the foundation upon which this nation was built. We as a nation are slowly pulling the curtains down on Dr. King’s “Dream” and there is a great weeping from those who died not for the sake of killing but for “Freedom Ring.”
Share your thoughts……
Posted by Dianna Tafazoli
“But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.” Excerpts from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” - August 28, 1963.
Dr. Kings spoke of poverty and unrest and men being exiled in their home lands. He spoke of the shame of a nation who refused to come together and see the true greatness of its society by recognizing the value in every man, and that every man irrespective of his skin color or where he comes from longs to be free and seeks justice and true liberty. Dr. King talks about the lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. The speech on that sweltering day in August, 1963 spoke to the greed that runs rampant in the hearts of men blinding them to a path to peace and holding on to only what their needs are. Not taking too much, but just enough. A man cannot live in three houses at the same time. One man was not meant to live on land overflowing, too massive to see its boundary lines while another barely hangs on to the edge of a cliff. When will humans learn that there is enough for every man to have some when power hungry men belie greed and walk in a spirit of sharing? Can there ever be peace in the Middle East, can there ever be true peace in the world as long as men’s hearts are filled with greed and not peace and brotherhood? I would like to hear your thoughts as you step outside of you and view the world by standing in another man’s shoes.
Posted by Dianna Tafazoli
This site is about remembering one of the greatest human beings in the history of man. The site reintroduces us to the great orator, his humanity and his life’s work of attempting to integrate the human race and to bring one nation to its greatness by realizing the value of all its human resources. We will hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak of triumph, of tribulation and the sadness of a country drowned in useless racism. But with all of that we will feel the drum major for justice hold out hope and belief that the hatred that fuels racism would someday give rise to a nation of brotherhood of black men and white men working together for our nation to live out the true meaning of its creed. The site will capitalize upon direct quotes from Dr. King relevant to the many journeys we face in our nation today. The site will also examine the many what ifs and the how tos and where we go from here all wrapped up in the lessons we learned from Dr. King and the path that many still follow today in the spirit of peace and nonviolence.
Posted by Dianna Tafazoli
“Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of heir lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.”
Posted by Dianna Tafazoli
“Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy.”
Posted by Dianna Tafazoli
“Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”