By Josh Weizel – Editorial Editor

On a warm day in August 1963, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed that he envisioned a society where African Americans and whites would one day live in brotherhood and judge each other based on the content of their character and not the color of their skin. The Declaration of Independence begins with the words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed with their creator with certain unalienable rights that include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Unfortunately, our country has not lived up to this principle fully throughout its history. We have seen too many instances of white supremacy which has been embedded in our nation’s psyche and caused Jim Crow laws that prohibited African Americans from using public facilities, attending public schools and getting an equal education. African American children were not able to have access to equal education because they did not have access to educators who could teach in-depth about the subject and focus on individual student needs.

Our country has come a long way forward in the fight for equal rights. It is a disservice to the African Americans and whites who risked their lives and marched for freedom to say that we have made no progress since the year 1964. As President Obama pointed out perfectly at the recent 50th anniversary of the famous Selma march, “We do a disservice to the cause of justice by intimating that bias and discrimination are immutable and that racial division is inherit to America.” If you think nothing’s changed since the past 50 years ask somebody who lived through the Selma or Chicago or Los Angeles of the 1950s. Ask the female CEO who once might have been assigned to the sectorial pool if nothing had changed. This country has come a long way, but we are still a long way from being an equal country along lines of race.

This problem infiltrates politics even today. It is shameful that Republicans would not reauthorize the Voting Rights Act in 2012. The traditional roots of the Republican Party are not against civil rights. It is the party of Ronald Reagan that reauthorized the Voting Rights Act. Unfortunately, the current group of extremists on the right is proudly causing Ronald Reagan to roll over in his grave. These individuals on the extreme right are appealing to the worst parts that remain in American society. The argument against the Voting Rights Act is that it is outdated and obsolete, but the truth is racism still exists in the present time and separate states are already making it more bureaucratic for people to register to vote which disproportionally affects democratic voters and minorities. The right to vote should not be a partisan idea, but instead it should be bipartisan and both Republicans and Democrats should want to make it easier to register to vote. There is a new generation of Republicans leaders who have common sense ideas and more free market solution to problems instead of government takeovers. These are good ideas, but it is not morally right for Republicans to get elected by suppressing the vote of Democratic voters. Instead, they must convince traditional Democratic voters why they should vote for Republicans.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s assertion that there are two Americas is still evidently true in our modern society. It is shameful that drug crimes are equal among whites and blacks, but young people of color are far more likely to spend their life in prison for nonviolent drug crimes. The idea of two Americas is so obvious in our system when African Americans who make one nonviolent mistake at an early age can no longer vote because of a mistake they made when they were teenagers. Are we really living in a system of equal justice for all when one nonviolent felony can prohibit minorities from reaching their dreams and potential, and not getting an education and job to move out of poverty?

There should be common sense criminal justice reform in this country that limits minimum mandatory sentencing that currently gives nonviolent offenders no chance for parole. This is because it is unjust and undemocratic when a disproportionate amount of young people, which are minorities, can spend inflexible amounts of time in prison for nonviolent drug crimes. It is not only unjust but we physically cannot afford it as a country and it costs the United States an average of $30,000 a year to incarcerate each inmate, which is a burden on taxpayers. The most disturbing thing is that this is money that could be spent on educating these individuals about the effects of drugs instead of putting them in jail. It is not only the length of the prison term that is unjust, but it is also the opportunities that are taken away that are fundamental to a democratic society. Those who have been in prison and who have felons on their record are prohibited from voting and applying for certain jobs and gaining access to equal education. It is even more heinous that the powerful and elite in the business and political worlds can vote and gain an education and control and influence the system, while these opportunities are taken away from others.

There are also problems within the African American community that need to be addressed to help inequality. When 85% of African American children live in single households, it is much more likely for these children to live an endless cycle of poverty. Every American should want his or her fellow Americans to rise out of poverty and to have economic empowerment and succeed as far as they can. We should have policies towards these communities that target economic opportunity and economic empowerment. Republicans must lead the case most effectively of why conservative economic policies are best for the African American community. Economic conservatives must go speak in communities where they have never gone before and lead the case for reducing regulations and taxes on business in urban areas to create enterprise zones in the African American community. This is because we need to get the African American community involved in the free enterprise system and those in that community to become as successful as possible.

Economic conservatives should also lead the case for real education reform where more time is directed towards class time and student learning and not focused on one size fits all tests. They should also make the case strongly for school choice to give minority and poor parents the opportunity to send their children to a charter or voucher school that best meets their individual needs because the public cannot keep throwing money into falling public school systems.

Republican Senator Rand Paul and Democratic Senator Cory Booker provide a perfect example of how politicians in Washington should behave in a non-partisan manner. The two senators have come together to work on criminal justice reform It is time we had more of that in Washington. Even with our shameful history of slavery and Jim Crow, America is still the last hope for freedom and human rights in the world and it is time we come together and focus on issues that unite us as Americans instead of those that divide us.

(Some information courtesy washingtontimes.com, whitehouse.gov, and cnn.com)