ALL LIVES MATTER. Dr. King’s Shattered Dream

Saturday night there was a companion protest on the 17th Street Bridge here in Atlanta, Georgia for the situation in Ferguson, MO.

The protesters were holding a banner that read, “#BlackLivesMatter.”

Yes, black lives matter, so do brown lives, yellow lives, red lives and white lives. Unborn children’s lives matter. There is no premium on one life over another.

The premise of all the protests of last week and the weeks prior is that Michael Brown was unjustly killed. That the police officer was out of line, excessive force was used on an innocent man.

The Grand Jury disagreed and no indictment was handed down to the Ferguson Police Officer.

Dr. Martin Luther King said,

Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely brings new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical as it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than on love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

I don’t think anyone could have said it better.

Jesse Jackson was an aide to Dr. King, but I guess he didn’t listen to the words of his mentor very closely.

Dr. Jackson was with Dr. King when he was killed.

Where did his message go? Did it go out of his ears?

Has the agenda for the common good become the Jesse Jackson personal agenda?

He and Al Sharpton have done nothing but stir up trouble and hard feelings in any controversial situation that they feel merits their attention.

Perhaps, it would be more believable if they went up in arms for every wrongful death, but instead it is pick and choose, depending on their ability to blow a community powder keg on the case.

Now the officer in question has resigned from his position. His life has changed and will never be the same.

In this way, his life and Michael Brown’s are irrevocably changed and will never return to what was prior to the August incident.

No one has won.

The town is in shambles, and nothing has been achieved.

Innocent business owners have lost their investment and livelihood.

Citizens have no town or hope of moving on for quite a while.

I think Dr. King would be genuinely saddened and disappointed that the sacrifice of his life has boiled down to this sad occurrence.

Image: http://quepiensasdelafoto.blogspot.com/2012/02/martin-luther-king.html