This is a Special Black History Month

Needless to say, this Black History month is a special one for America, in light of the historic Democratic Party presentation, of an African American and a Woman for President in the primaries.

Every Year We have Black History Month and Many of us are about to overdose on the Dr. Martin Luther King "I have A Dream Speech". However, many of our children have never heard the speech. Many young people that are getting ready to vote on Super Duper Tuesday have not seen the King or the Kennedy speech. So If you have a young person who needs to improve this aspect of their Cultural Literacy send them a link.

Some time during the month I will put up the Kennedy inauguration speech when I can track it down. The other thing that is important to understand about kings speech is that it was originally the Bounced Check Speech. The most important part of the speech is in the beginning. The dream part was a later add on. The end is the most emotionally charged and most remembered but the beginning has the most valuable information and King's challenge to America that we are still working on.

The First Part of the Speech
(adjusted for Cultural Health with my political commentary at the end.)


I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.


Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of enslaved Africans who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the African still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the African in America is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the African lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the African American is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given Black people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.


For the last eight years Bush and the forty thieves have captured us Americans under the specter of torture and injustice once again. Bush has not just given a blank check to the American citizens of Katrina but is giving blank checks to the world while lining the pockets of the forty thieves. Will November 08, 2008 "...go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation..."

It is once again the turn of the young, your country needs you.

Get fired uP and ready to Go!

Cultural Literacy Minute: African names for African Things

Could you detect the Cultural Health adjustments to the speech? The point is, if the honorable Dr. King could suffer from symptoms of Cultural Poisoning you and I would not be immune from this dis-ease. The good news is that words are easy to correct, why you can do it yourself and its FREE and freeing.

One last note, I could not detect one symptom (words) of Cultural Poisoning at the Presidential Kodak Debate in California. WoW, we may be able to cash that promissory note yet, if we all do our part.

Give yourself a check up from the neck uP

I wish you a Culturally Healthy and Wealthy Black History Month - Stay Tuned.