By Vincent L. Hall
In his day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was known to transmit telegrams to people around the world for various reasons. He sent his profound congratulations, comfort, and the convictions of his conscious via the Western Union telegram which closed its business in 2006.
However, in my sanctified imagination, I sat with the former civil rights leader who dictated this letter. King was incensed that North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson is “Martin King on steroids” as Donald Trump has described him.
Here is the rest of the “telegram.”
My Dear Fellow Americans, This letter finds me confined to the sanitized canons of the whitewashing of American history because you have rewritten my life and legacy to suit your ends. I am deeply saddened, to say the least. Somehow, the unauthorized authors of history have reduced my life of pain and sacrifice to a few well-timed and artfully delivered speeches.
I was elated when I pushed myself away from the podium after the “Dream” speech, but it was far from my finest hour. Accolades and applause were never my calling or my conviction. I tried my best to make the case to America for why the Negro could not be content with swimming in its cesspool of second-class citizenship.
Unquestionably the first step in this process was to grant the Negro and all Americans unfettered access to the electoral process. I am saddened today because less than 50% of all those of voting age even cast a ballot. And Blacks, who just four decades ago could not vote freely, continue to forfeit a Constitutional right and privilege that I and so many others gave our lives and livelihoods to secure.
Conversely, the party of Abraham Lincoln, who took pride in their efforts to make freemen of enslaved people, “turned a blind eye” toward justice. The Republican-turned-MAGA Party has become relentless in the pursuit of injustice at the polls. Red State governors and legislators have been transparent in their efforts to limit or scare away voters who don’t share their religion, nationalism, and privilege.
Trump et al, have shamelessly sought to abrogate the rights of oppressed and underprivileged voters by introducing stringent and unnecessary voter I.D. bills. Their efforts stymie voters with low incomes, the elderly, students, minorities, and any unmentioned category fit to be called “the least of these.”
While I find great delight and distinction in the best examples of the organized labor movement, I am equally troubled that wage disparities are still a reality. The last march I planned to lead was on behalf of workers who were being disrespected by their employers.
Research data from the Economic Policy Institute found wage disparity has significantly increased over time: CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker in 2022, up from an average pay ratio of 21 to 1 in 1965. In many cases in 2024 the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio is 602 to 1 in some industries.
American workers have a greater right and reason to strike against wage inequalities, mounting increases in health care, and policy generated poverty than ever be- fore. We are watching a split screen that shows the rise of homelessness on one side and the surge of a few who are moving toward Trillionaire status on the other.
It is a detestable fact that the wealthiest 1% of Americans enjoy 90% of the wealth to the detriment and derision of the 99%. However, much of the blame for this evil imbalance must be laid at the feet of politicians, labor leaders, and laborers who have become complacent. How did we forget that all rights, especially labor rights, bear an expiration date in a capitalistic society? No fight for any right is ever finished or fully won.
The state of public education in our nation is disheveled and desegregated. Far too many pulpits in America are more centered on profits than prophecy. The number of men and women in prisons is atrocious and is only tolerated because incarceration is the engine of incorporation for the Prison Industrial Complex.
What is sadder and worse than all the aforementioned is that there is no real movement afoot that threatens evil and challenges our individual and collective souls. There is no fight against poverty, no fight for peace, not at home and not abroad.
It hurts me to see needless human suffering, in a nation that could do so much better! That’s all for now!
P.S. Vote Harris/Walz!
A long-time Texas Metro News columnist, Dallas native Vincent L. Hall is an author, writer, award-winning writer, and a lifelong Drapetomaniac.
