Dr. King had a great impact. But as we look at communities around our country today, it is sadly clear that much of his message still has not been learned.
The bitterness and violence that is so rooted today in many of our black communities shows that they have not gotten Dr. King's message. The statistics are clear that black families are, on average, in far worse shape today than they were in 1963 when Dr. King gave his famous speech. These statistics _ family breakdown, illegitimacy, abortion, crime _ are living testimony to the extent to which blacks chose the path of politics and political demagoguery rather than the path of faith, tradition and personal responsibility on which to build their lives after the Civil Rights Act was enacted.
We can also see that Dr. King's message is widely lost in many parts of the country outside of the black community. The bishop of my church just returned from Africa, where he had witnessed the tragedies taking place in the Sudan and its neighboring countries. His first observation to me upon his return was that Americans are losing perspective of the magnitude and nature of their good fortune. As despots slaughter innocent people on the other side of the world, we have many here who define oppression as any resistance to cast aside every tradition that defines a nation under God in order to legitimize every imaginable human deviant proclivity.
The social statistics in the white community show the same alarming deterioration since the 1960s as in the black community. Illegitimacy rates among white women today exceed those of black women in the 1960s. Divorce rates and abortion have soared in all communities.
A famous rabbi who marched with Dr. King in Alabama and became a lifelong friend of his once remarked, "Martin Luther King is a sign that God has not forsaken the United States of America."
This week all Americans should read the "I Have a Dream Speech" and acquaint themselves with the prophetic message of a very great American.