Early evening, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
from U2's Pride (In the Name of Love)
That April 4 was forty years ago today so what exactly has changed since Martin Luther King was shot by James Earl Ray on the balcony of Lorraine Motel.
Well Kings protoge Jesse Jackson tried to gain the Democratic nomination on a number of occasions, but failed. However, now we have Barak Obama leading the Democrat race. However, has that much changed as the latest negative campaigning from his opponent says that he could not win the General Election against the Republican choice John McCain. There had already been hints in this campaign that sadly race was still a tool that could sway the election, or at least was thought to be.
However, we do have a second sucessive African-American Secretary of State in Condoleezza Rice following on from Colin Powell, who had previously been the first African-American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
So there has been progress in America although there are still some racist feelings and attitudes in some states.
Elsewhere apartheid has ended in South Africa but a reverse form has taken hold under the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. However, worldwide his dream
that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'
is close to fulfillment. For many the opportunity is there just the final realisation of acheivement has yet to be grasped. For certain areas of our world however a lot still has to be done, for the people there the dream is far from being realised as they are oppressed by forces they cannot control and live often in fear of consequences if they speak out.
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