Thorburn: Are we there yet?

dailycamera (Colorado)
By Doug Thorburn
Sunday, June 29, 2008

'A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years, must now do something special for him, in order to equip him to compete on a just and equal basis."
-- Martin Luther King
"Don't Californicate Colorado."
-- Bumper sticker
Read Amendment 46, the so-called "Colorado Civil Rights Act" on the ballot in November, very carefully. It is not civil and it is not right!
There is a Myth, perhaps first stated by Charles Krauthammer in 1991, handed down around the right-wing campfires from ignorant parent to ignorant child. The Myth is that Martin Luther King was opposed to affirmative action.
The Myth derives from a bizarre distortion of Dr. King's "I have a Dream Speech" in which he offers a dream of a future where his children "...will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Transforming such a wonderful vision of a future for his children into a propaganda tool is very sad.
Now, in 2008 can we all join hands with our conservative brothers and sisters, dance around the fire and sing "Free at last! We have overcome!"
An African American may become our next president! It has been a mere 44 years since Dr. King's speech.
My strange memory brings up the voice of an Earle Hodgins who played a hundred snake oil salesmen in Westerns for over 30 years,. "Yessir, friends and neighbors, I once knew a man who didn't have a tooth in his head, but by using this remedy he taught himself to play the base drum."
The base drum brought to you straight from California. While most of the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on promoting Amendment 46 will come from California, compliments of Ward Connerly, ironically an African-American. I have written before that Mr. Connerly runs an organization in California called, again ironically, the American Civil Rights Institute from which he pays himself a handsome salary.
Most of the funding of this nonprofit comes from extreme right wing, white contributors who remain anonymous in Colorado because the money is laundered through another nonprofit controlled by Mr. Connerly. But past contributors have been the late Joseph Coors, Rupert Murdock and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Their political views are not middle of the road.
When the Michigan anti-civil rights "civil rights amendment" around 90 percent of it funding came through the circuitous California process described above.
The Colorado campaign is apparently run by Jessica Peck Corry of the Independence Institute in Golden. She is an attractive blond young lady with more energy and brains than Earle Hodgins had snake oil bottles. She is formidable, charming and articulate.
The Independence Institute's illogical Libertarian philosophy gave Boulder its President as a columnist for a few years named John Caldara. Mr. Caldara, thankfully, was replaced by Bob Greenlee.
Affirmative action was first enacted by President John F. Kennedy and expanded by President Johnson.
The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that minority status may be considered in college admissions, but quotas are illegal!
So, right now and until November ask yourself a few questions. [To read the entire op ed, go to: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/jun/29/are-we-there-yet/ ]