If Barack Obama's speech yesterday changed the conversation, and I hope it did, Jesse Jackson is one of the people who started it. One of the foremost leaders of the civil rights movement, Rev. Jackson helped pave the way for many of the advances in civil rights and human rights that are again becoming part of the national conversation. And as he reminded us yesterday, it's not just the rights of African Americans that Selma helped advance, but the rights of students, immigrants, people with disabilities and others who benefit from the conversation he and others helped start over 40 years ago.
Vanity asks the question, "Is it popular?"
Politics asks the question, "Will it work?"
Conscience and morality ask the question "Is it right?"
Barack Obama's speech yesterday was a call to change the conversation in America to one where the challenges of the past and the struggle for equality are not forgotten, but are advanced beyond what they were over 40 years ago. This is no longer a conversation just about how we can achieve equality, but about how we can achieve unity.
It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper. ~ Barack Obama
