We All Have Dreams, But None Of Them Are Coming True

Monday, January 18th was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Children had the day off from school, government offices were closed and the city operated on a “holiday schedule” – meaning there was no mail and our mass transit system ran on a Sunday schedule – and there was no garbage pick-up. So, everyone took a “break” from business and ‘observed’ a holiday they look forward to, simply because they don’t have to be anywhere?

For many of us, we're just dreaming of another day off!

Apparently, local organizations, schools and civic leaders didn’t feel the need to address – or share with our community – this import observation, a day dedicated to a man who had a dream that equality would be feasible and that racial harmony would finally be achieved.

We’ve not achieved any of that – not in over 50 years – if you ask me.

The Canarsie Courier reaches out to local schools, politicians and civic leaders for various quality of life issues. We encourage residents to submit their ideas and opinions and to share with us observances that demonstrate we ARE a community coming together.

Our publication has yet to run stories on how the community is “observing” Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Sure, we can run a press release that’s put out there by all other media outlets – something you can Google on your own without exclusively looking at a community newspaper.

However, in the communities we circulate, NONE of the schools called us about shows, displays or anything they hosted related to the teaching of King’s ideologies. Did any of the local schools have students recite the “I Had A Dream” speech in front of an auditorium?

How about communities where residents are outraged at the “racism” and “injustices” being committed on their streets? Did anyone come out to remember King and his humanitarian efforts? Instead of gang members shooting at each other and innocent bystanders, did they take the day to reflect on how they’re killing each other and destroying their own lives?

For some reason, we haven’t received letters – exclusive to our newspaper – from politicians expressing their disgust with how our community is still plagued by violence and racism despite the Civil Rights movement. Yes, we will get generic statements on the observance of the “holiday” but only on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – not weeks before when a teenager was allegedly gang-raped at a park in Brownsville and not when two teens were shot in East New York at Pennsylvania Avenue.

Who’s responsible for resonating King’s values in the communities where thugs – who are dangerous but seem to want to be treated “equally with respect” by others – walk down the block? Gunmen, drug dealers, rapists and murderers – lurking in our communities – have seemingly obliterated the past and any sentiments that they’re promoting more violence.

Let’s get real! When someone asks me why we didn’t feature anything on Martin Luther King Jr., Day, I can only tell them the truth – that 1) no one submitted material to us or shared events they were hosting and 2) the organizations/schools simply didn't host events commemorating King’s efforts.

Not to be rude, but – in my opinion – hosting an event way after the day’s observed is a little tacky and shows how ill-prepared an organization was for such a prestigious commemoration. In light of everyone saying, “we need to stop the killings” and “take guns off the street,” one date where the nation acknowledges King’s works is NOT enough!

Are educators teaching our children the history of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream and the controversy of today’s Black Lives Matter initiative? While this might be an interesting forum that high school students can host to generate a sense of awareness among themselves, it’s not been brought to our attention. Does that mean these discussions haven’t taken place in ANY of our academic institutions?

In a city where minorities are killing each other and committing acts against each other, it seems history and its “progress” is meaningless! In neighborhoods where minority residents don’t want to be “judged” or “targeted” because of their background, many have NO problem targeting each other and segregating themselves from well-off communities that see very little violence. Slaughtering each other in broad daylight…stabbing someone because they looked at you “the wrong way”…Is THIS what Martin Luther King, Jr. had in mind for the future of our country?

All we seem to care about is having a three-day weekend so we can have more parties wherein gunshots will ring out, taking more lives.

In an effort to get the community more involved, let’s prepare for Black History Month! If your organization, school or center is hosting an event during February in honor of Black History Month, don’t wait until March to keep the community in-the-know.

We can’t force residents, school administrators or civic leaders to host events in a timely fashion – and we can’t threaten anyone to send us material about an epic leader whose words have seemingly vanished from the bloody city streets. If a “movement” towards peace is going to take place, we need to realize that peaceful initiatives established by historians aren’t working either.