We Are a People Without a Vision by Rev. Dr. Al Shaprton

Earlier this year, on the day of the national celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the National Action Network's New York Chapter hosted its annual King Day Leadership Forum at our Harlem headquarters. Up the marbled steps of the "House of Justice" -which rests above an 'oldies' music vendor and on the same corner as a popular fried-fish carryout - traveled New York state and local elected officials; including our newest senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Speakers filled the afternoon with colorful references to the history of the Civil Rights Movement -- Selma, Birmingham, and the March on Washington and the obligatory excerpts from Dr. King's well-regarded speeches. To add to the historic quality of this moment, entertainment industry leaders --- including several well-known hip-hop artists, joined these elected officials. Many would have looked at the dais that day, and said, "This is the dream of which Dr. King spoke." But I believe that Dr. King would have looked at the group assembled and said, "You are not talking about a dream, you are talking about an illusion."

We are all familiar with Dr. King's historic I Have A Dream speech, which sermonizes his hope for racial and social equality for people of all races and religious backgrounds and his summon for them to assemble in celebration of moral and spiritual freedom from the bondages of social slavery. On the occasions that we celebrate our culture -- from Black History Month to Dr. King's birthday -- the best photo-ops show children of color embracing and being embraced by children whose ancestors voluntarily showed up on the shores of this country. This is indeed a wonderful picture, but the veneer of these moments often belies the fact that: (1) our nation has just witnessed a voting swindle in Florida that should have just saved Americans time by asking Black voters how many bubbles in a bar of soap; and (2) over the past decade, we have cheered harder for a former athlete who was cleared of charges of murdering his ex-wife and for an American President and his right to entertain his dalliances in the Oval Office than we have expressed outrage at the rising incidents of racial profiling in this country. Simply, we can accept being profiled on the highway because of our color more easily than we can accept the invasion of privacy of an elected official. Are we dreaming, or just sleeping?

Having grown up in the movement under the tutelage of leaders such as Adam Clayton Powell, Dr. King, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Hosea Williams, I recognize that the difference between the movement of three decades ago and the movement of today is that today, we are a people without a vision of where we need to go. For example, when we acknowledged this it was morally deplorable to force people to sit in the back of a bus because of the color of their skin, we also acknowledged that we could no longer afford this mode of transportation and forced a boycott of these services. We could see walking in pride, rather than riding in shame.

When we watched police beating citizens and denying these citizens due process of law under the Constitution of this country, we took our protest against these policies to the streets in acts of civil disobedience. We visualized ourselves uniting against a common enemy. Where is the sense of urgency that we had then? Today, when we look at the confirmation hearings of the appointments of a President that was "se-elected" by the U.S. Supreme Court and we see that all 100 United States Senate votes that are needed to confirm these appointments are not people of our heritage, are we disturbed? Are we bothered by the fact that most of these elected officials visited our churches -- sang in our choirs and preached in our pulpits --- and have yet to come back to our communities to hear our opinions on these Presidential nominees? A little closer to home, when is the last time that you wrote a letter to your Congressman to express your disapproval or approval of his vote on an issue affecting your community? We must have a vision of accountability in our community.

We must originate a new vision for our people and for Black America. This vision must embrace every area that touches our lives --- economically, in our schools, in our communities, and in our homes. The late Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., pastor, Congressman and visionary leader, developed what he termed a "Black Position Paper." In this paper, he sets forth the 15 principles of Black power --- the type of "power to the people" movement that our communities once celebrated. He closes his paper with the statement, "we glory in what we have become, and are today."

It is in this recollection of glory that this year we will call for the first Black Political Convention. This convention will draw upon our people to elect delegates from their housing projects, their community associations, their churches and their families to attend a national initiative to address our concerns on everything from the quality of education in our cities to police brutality. More importantly, for the first time on a national level, we will merge our scholars with our children, our clergy with our laborers, and our leaders with our people to visualize an agenda, our agenda for the next three decades. Only then, will we truly be able to add new chapters in the book of our people. Only then, during our future Black history month celebrations, will we be able to speak of new, emerging leaders. Only then, will we once again be able to truly "glory in what we have become, and are today."

Rev. Dr. Al Sharpton is the president and CEO of The National Action Network.