Martin Luther King Jr.'s essay, A Letter From Birmingham Jail has become a
classic for good reason. Martin Luther King was an excellent writer and speaker,
appealing not only to the logical side of most people, but also to their
emotional side. He was an intelligent man, keeping up with all the current
events of not only the nation but the world, and was well read in issues of the
past. What he said and wrote came from deep inside him and was influenced by his
belief in God and Jesus Christ. His essay took his knowledge and his talents of
persuasion, and summed up what he was working for and what he believed in. When
he stated, "Anyone who lives inside the U.S. can never be considered an
outsider anywhere within its bounds..." he was saying that Americans are
people made up of many cultures and backgrounds. He was celebrating America's
diversity, which makes the United States such a wonderful place to live. He
would be ashamed and sorrowful if he saw how citizens of The United States
treated each other today. If we had to take a million immigrants in, say, Zulus,
next year, or Englishmen, and put them in Virginia, what group would be easier
to assimilate? Patrick Buchanan is outspoken on many subjects, immigration is
one of them. Buchanan believes that there should be a 200 mile fence built along
the U.S. Mexican border, and that Congress should pass a five-year moratorium on
legal immigration. He also feels that an Executive Order should be signed which
would abolish federally mandated minority programs and affirmative-action plans,
plans that were put in place during the Civil Rights Movement which King helped
to lead. Buchanan is the same man who stated that women were "simply not
endowed by nature with the same measures of single-minded ambition and the will
to succeed." Yet, if he becomes President he will re-instate prayer and
Bible study classes because he believes that family values and morals are
non-existent in American society today. Is this guy for real? What happened to
equality? How can someone be religious and still go around declaring that some
people are better then others? Supposedly our country was to have gotten rid of
all its racists notions during the 60's and the 70's. Apparently not. Buchanan
is creating outsiders within the U.S. Measure 9 and Measure 13, measures, had
they been passed, would have caused discrimination on a public scale, legal in
Oregon. It would have isolated gays and lesbians as freakish groups who live
their lives differently then the main stream, and therefore should be punished
for their uniqueness. The founders of these measures, Lon Maybon and the Oregon
Citizens Alliance, are so determined to pass such a measure that they are
thinking of putting a third measure on the ballot next November. The OCA
believes that they have the right to declare homosexuals as dirty people because
it says so in the Bible. That, because they have intercourse with members of
their own sex, homosexuals should not be allowed to adopt children, or to become
legally married. That God has damned them for eternity and that they should be
treated accordingly. The OCA is creating outsiders within the U.S. The Crips and
the Bloods are two widely known gangs in America. They are centered in the Los
Angeles area, but they have groups all across the United States in nearly every
city. The Crips and the Bloods are only two of hundreds of growing gangs that
are surfacing nation wide. The gangs are prominently located in the
inner-cities, the poorer areas of large cities. The gangs play on the idea that
they are a family. If anyone attacks my brother, then I'm here to fight back for
him. Occasionally, they kill an innocent bystander or two. The kids (Kids they
are. Gangs have been known to recruit children between the ages of 10 and 13.)
that become members commonly have problems at home, abuse or neglect are
prevalent. They feel that the only place left to turn is to the streets, and to
the brotherhood of the gangs. Gangs are commonly associated with drugs and
violence, for good reason. They attack each other for violation of territory and
for interference in each others business, causing a vicious circle of revenge.
The result of this violence is fear and anger felt by their victims and
neighborhoods. It also leads to a separation between the inner-cities and the
suburbs, and stereotyping of whites to blacks. When people think of gangs, they
think of inner-city young black males with sawed-off shotguns and drugs. Gangs
are tearing apart our communities and our nation. Gangs are creating outsiders
within the U.S. G. Gordon Liddy, the Watergate showman-convict and host of the
nation's second most widely heard radio talk show, told his listeners that if
federal agents invade their homes, they should shoot at their heads because of
the agents' protective vests....he reconsidered. The head is too hard to hit.
'So you shoot twice to the body...center of mass. And if that does not work,
then shoot to the groin area.' Time Magazine. May 8, 1995. p.45 The Oklahoma
bombing last May brought to light the idea of terrorists within the United
States. Many people wondered how a fellow American could kill hundreds of
innocent people just because of where they worked, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building. To other Americans it came as no surprise, some even said that it was
about time retaliation came for the 70 Davidians who died in Waco, Texas at the
hands of the FBI and the ATF in 1993. Located throughout the United States,
Survivalists, Patriots, Militias and other groups such as the Aryan Nation, the
Christian Identity, the Posse Comitatus, and Wise Use all have a common bond,
the United States government is out to get them and the first thing that it will
take will be their Second Amendment right, the right the bear arms. What each
group has done about this government threat is what separates them. Some have
started their own militias, these groups are arming themselves to defend the
Constitution, which they believe is being threatened by the government. Others
simply talk about what they believe, either over local access stations, short
wave radios, or nationally brodcasted AM radio shows, and TV stations. Mark
Koernke and G. Gordon Liddy are classic examples. These people seem to make
concerned people, concerned about water- and land-use policies, concerned about
NAFTA and GATT as causes for lost jobs, concerned about the United Nations and
the United States role in world-wide affairs, angry and afraid. There are
militia groups who believe that the government has installed electronic devices
in car ignitions to stall autos on the day the new world takes over, and that
the U.N. plans to conquer the U.S. using the National Guard and L.A. gangs to
disarm the public. These people are adamant about getting their points across
and do so in any way they can, Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City Federal
Building so that his point would be heard. Militant militias and people overly
paranoid about the government are creating outsiders within the U.S. Random acts
of violence happen every day. A few women are raped, people are killed, someone
is beaten. People are fearful of a person they see walking down the street. It
is now a matter of personal safety not to help someone who is stranded alongside
the road, you just do not know. Citizens of large cities, and even smaller sized
communities, keep their doors locked at all times and talk to people through
chains and bolts. What happened to the friendliness of the 50's where doors did
not have to be locked, and people trusted each other? Fear seems to control the
American life, all because of random acts of violence? It is shown in recent
studies that more people will be killed by someone they have never met before
then ever before. Random acts of violence are creating outsiders within the U.S.
Martin Luther King Jr's goals of equality among all people has been met, to some
extent. There is still hatred held by some, and fear, which fuels hatred, by
others. When King spoke those words, "Anyone who lives inside the U.S. can
never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds," he knew
nothing about people like Buchanan and Liddy, the OCA or the Crips. What we need
today is a modern day King, one who can unite us all and make sure that there
really are no outsiders within the U.S.