The Promised Land
In his last sermon the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. assured the assembled faithful that he and they together would reach the Promised Land. But a day or two later a bullet fired from afar ended his life.
After King's death, Ralph Abernathy, another clergyman and King's faithful assistant and successor, told the remaining faithful:"We will get to the Promised Land, and it will be under my leadership." But he turned out to have not nearly as much charisma, and the times had changed anyway. After a while nothing much was heard from him.
Earlier Eugene Debs, the famed Socialist leader of the early 1900's, had already told his followers something like, "I am not going to try to lead you into the Promised Land, because if I could, someone else could come along and lead you back out."
Land is the ultimate unit of wealth, because, along with the oceans, the atmosphere, and the Sun, it is the source of the great majority of the things that keep us alive and in reasonably good spirits, and he who has no land lacks having the biggest stake in the ultimate well-being of his nation. That is why those in flight from the clutches of a deceitful pharoah endured an ordeal of many years to get to the land. Also it had been promised.
After the Civil War there was the celebrated promise to the freed slaves of 40 acres and a mule, but the rising tide of events led the great majority of the emancipated and their descendants to seek their salvations in cities instead, and for a while the sun did shine as brightly there as on the fields.
But that wasn't forever, and in the years following the Second World War, those urbanites descended from Europeans chose to move closer to the basics -- including space -- that are so much more available on the land, and these new suburbanites took with them the smiles of the legislators and the industrialists that are so key to keeping cities in good repair. That left those who remained behind trapped, with none of the means that land provides for facing an uncertain future.
In 1895, when "black" people were being lynched in the American South at the rate of about four a day, they nevertheless owned 15 million acres of land.
Today, with lynchings long out of fashion but because of trickery, siren calls, and the choices of heirs, that number is down to 3 million acres or less.
Bye-bye, Promised Land.
After King's death, Ralph Abernathy, another clergyman and King's faithful assistant and successor, told the remaining faithful:"We will get to the Promised Land, and it will be under my leadership." But he turned out to have not nearly as much charisma, and the times had changed anyway. After a while nothing much was heard from him.
Earlier Eugene Debs, the famed Socialist leader of the early 1900's, had already told his followers something like, "I am not going to try to lead you into the Promised Land, because if I could, someone else could come along and lead you back out."
Land is the ultimate unit of wealth, because, along with the oceans, the atmosphere, and the Sun, it is the source of the great majority of the things that keep us alive and in reasonably good spirits, and he who has no land lacks having the biggest stake in the ultimate well-being of his nation. That is why those in flight from the clutches of a deceitful pharoah endured an ordeal of many years to get to the land. Also it had been promised.
After the Civil War there was the celebrated promise to the freed slaves of 40 acres and a mule, but the rising tide of events led the great majority of the emancipated and their descendants to seek their salvations in cities instead, and for a while the sun did shine as brightly there as on the fields.
But that wasn't forever, and in the years following the Second World War, those urbanites descended from Europeans chose to move closer to the basics -- including space -- that are so much more available on the land, and these new suburbanites took with them the smiles of the legislators and the industrialists that are so key to keeping cities in good repair. That left those who remained behind trapped, with none of the means that land provides for facing an uncertain future.
In 1895, when "black" people were being lynched in the American South at the rate of about four a day, they nevertheless owned 15 million acres of land.
Today, with lynchings long out of fashion but because of trickery, siren calls, and the choices of heirs, that number is down to 3 million acres or less.
Bye-bye, Promised Land.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 8:42 AM
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