Dear Dr. Marting Luther King Jr:
Dear Dr. Marting Luther King Jr:
After hearing your speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, I could taste the bitterness in my heart. It is evident that “the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society” (1). African-Americans are constantly victims of horrible police brutality. Rarely can an African-American find decent lodging in hotels and motels throughout the country. How is it possible for a Negro to feel a part of this country if he or she cannot even vote for who is to govern them? No individual, white or black, should suffer from such injustices. When the founding fathers of our country wrote the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence they formed a promissory note to every American, which guaranteed them “certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Declaration of Independence, pg. 1). It is apparent, though, that “America has given the Negro people a bad check- a check which has come back marked insufficient funds” (1). Many African-Americans may even claim that the bank of justice, which is composed of our civil government and the society in which we live, is bankrupt- that there is no hope for the Negro people in America. However, Dr. King, you refuse “to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation” (1). Your words stirred my soul and made me believe that it is possible for our country to become more racially just. After hearing your powerful speech, I thought back on what this country was built on. I searched for what our political and economic systems were based upon. In doing so, I looked to the writings of John Locke and Adam Smith in search of a system that could lead to more liberty and justice for all.
In Locke’s writing entitled The Second Treatise on Civil Government, he asserts that all men are born into a “state of Nature.” Within this “state of Nature” each man is free and equal. Thus, as free and equal human beings, we should love one another: “The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, which obliges every one, and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it,...