Divine Inspiration – Lest We Forget
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King (1929-1968)
The year is 2012 and I worry about our children and their education like never before. We took the risk of a beating and even death to learn how to read and write, when we were slaves. We fought with a vengeance to make sure that our schools were desegregated and our children given the same advantages as their white counterparts. Yet, today we seem to have become apathetic when our children are disrespectful to the teacher, themselves, their elders and ultimately the educational system as a whole.
We have come so far that many of us have forgotten what the fight was about not so many years ago. Can it be that we have become so excited about the ability to move within the middle class and beyond that we have forgotten the bodies, hearts and souls of those who sacrificed to get us here? Can it be that we have chosen to ignore the thunderbolts from our children falling further and further behind in not only attaining college degrees, but also their high school diplomas?
I pray that we have not and we take the time to reflect upon the blood and faith that brought us to this place. I pray that when we have the chance, we push our young people to know that education is a gift, not a privilege. I pray that we don’t get so complacent with our current good fortune that we get stupid with wasting our time and minds on things that will no longer enlighten us, rather take us to the school of desensitization, mediocrity and loss of educational vigor. I pray that we will hear the call of the ancestors and recognize we still have an educational legacy to uphold.
