No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on January 20, 2020

Personally, I think calling it MLK day cheapens the whole idea.

Martin Luther King was a brilliant orator who believed that all are created equal. He spoke his passion and people listened. He was arrested for civil disobedience knowing that he could bring a spotlight onto the injustices that he and others suffered under. He knew he had a platform and he made sure he used it to the best of his ability.

Was he a saint? No, but who is? He was a man who made things better for everyone. Others have tried for years to discredit him but his legacy lives.

I really wonder what he would have done with social media as it is today.

Dr. King wanted for everyone to have the same basic human rights and be judged under the law the same. He didn’t want more rights for one group of people and less for others. He wanted the groups on the outside to have the same rights as the groups on the inside. 

That is something that often gets disconnected in the discussion or shouting match. No one for equal rights for all is trying to take way rights from another group. That is why it is called EQUAL rights and we still do not have that in this country. 

When I say Black Lives Matter and someone else comes back with well what about X lives do they matter? It is derailing the purpose of the phrase Black Lives Matter. This phrase came into being because young men of color were being killed for no apparent reason other than the cops felt threatened by them. In this day and age of cameras in our hands, we witnessed time after time of situations where the cops were in a very grey area to begin with then tried to justify what happened with fabricated evidence or changing the crime scene to fit their narrative. Understand that it was a very small percentage of cops in the great police force we have in this country but those cops tarnished the badge for everyone else. I support my local police force but I do not support behavior that impinges on another person’s rights. 

When I say I support LGBTQ rights, it does not mean I am trying to remove any rights from straight people. I want my friends to have the same rights I do as a married woman. I want them to have access to the healthcare they need without judgement or being treated like their problem is not physical but all in their head. I want them to have the same housing rights and job opportunities as the straight people. Again, we are taking equal not more for them and less for other.

When I support immigrants, I am asking that they be allowed under the law to become US citizens and all those children who were brought here as minors be allowed to walk the path to citizenship. Yes. I do believe that the dreamers should have a path to citizenship and the ability to prove that they do belong in the only country they have ever known. We are stopping some of our best and brightest students at the high school level when they could go on and do so many great things for our country. 

New York recently allowed people of dubious status to get driver licenses in the state of New York. I think that was a brilliant move for the very simple reason is that to get a driver’s license in New York you have to have proof of insurance which means there will be more insured drivers on the roads. It will allow people to open bank accounts because they have a license and pay day predatory loan sharks will have fewer customers. It will allow them to take a step out of the shadows. 

Equal pay for equal work is not saying that men should get paid less than women or take pay cuts so they are making the same as the women. This inequality gets worse for people of color and especially women of color many of who are the sole bread winners for their family. I have been on the short end of this stick more than once and have not liked it at all. Part of this comes from the idea that the men are making money to support their families and they are the only one doing it. That idea when out the window oh so many years ago. Women are now a big contributor to the household income rather than vacation or pin money. 

Everyone in this country deserves basic human rights. Everyone should be treated equally under the law. This does not mean that those who already have this privilege are having their rights diminished or taken away but that all are treated equal under the eyes of the law.

And that is what I think would make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr proudest of us as a nation. 

I am grateful for the move towards equal rights for all.

Category: Uncategorized
Tags: