On August 28th, 1963, during the March on Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King made his historic "I have a dream" speech, projecting into American consciousness his vision of an American society transcending the racism of the past. However, his experiences over the next five years led him to the understanding that the dream could not be realized until the axis of evil in this country had been overcome. He viewed this hydra-headed evil as composed of militarism, materialism (economic exploitation), and racism.

Being a man of action, Dr. King's analysis led him to speak out against the Vietnam War and America's habit of taking "necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the (upper) classes." Both war spending and giveaways to the rich were choices made in how tax dollars are sent- and the choices not taken was the economic empowerment of African-Americans and other disenfranchised groups.

It also led to his eventual call for a second March on Washington that he termed the Poor People's March. However, this was to be a very different kind of "March". The Poor People's March was not to be a one-day-out of town by sunset--exercise. His plan was to establish a base camp, Freedom Village, from which people of all races could join him to lobby and nonviolently confront the federal government regarding its policies that were depriving the people of this country of the resources necessary to fulfill his dream. However, his assassination in Memphis prevented him from achieving his dream.

Today we are suffering under the conditions that Dr. King envisioned if the axis of evil was not overcome. Last year the Congress spent half of the disposable income of the government--$350 billion-on Defense while the social category with the largest expenditure was education with its budget a $50 billion, which was not sufficient to fund the mandated provisions of the "Leave No Child Behind Act." In addition Congress has given President Bush an additional $167 billion dollars for his incursion into Iraq while preparing to pass a budget this year that could deprive 160,000 American families of their section 8 certificates.

The economic exploitation that Dr. King feared is greater than ever, as the divide between rich and poor expands. The Bush tax cuts (most of which was given to the wealthiest 1%) have created a federal budget deficit today of $500 billion dollars which is projected to lead to a multi trillion dollar deficit in a few years. It is clear that this type of deficit will make it even more difficult for the government to meet the needs of the people of this country.

It is conjectured that the cuts are not only fueled by greed but also by the desire to make it impossible for government to provide even a threadbare social safety net. Today's corporate greed and corruption surpasses even that of the twenties, another period of scandalous corporate behavior where the government seemed content to "Let the buyer and worker beware". As the salaries for CEOs soar to astronomical levels, the workers are pressured to worker faster and earn less.

The third hydra head-racism-is alive and well, being fueled by government policies, especially the War on Drugs. In 1973, there were 500,000 people in prison. Today 2 million people are in prisons-1 million Black people and hundreds of thousands of Latinos. It is estimated that 80% are there for nonviolent drug crimes. Billions of dollars needed for quality education, affordable health care and housing to name a few areas of need are being put into the hands of enforcement agencies who seem unable to arrest suppliers and money launderers while arresting the never ending stream of retailers. Coupled with the CORI laws, the War on Drugs is marginalizing an ever-increasing number of people of color, especially men while the prison-industrial complex grows richer and guards' unions more powerful.

If we are to remove the practice of disparate treatment of African-Americans and other groups of color (racism), we have to demand federal government policies that are consciously focused on eliminating the educational achievement gap, health care disparities, the wealth gap, and the other disparities that are the product of governmental policies and practices. A War on Drugs in a society that is structured to keep people of color on the bottom rung of society is a policy designed to create a new type of slavery. We need a War on Racism, designed to eliminate the disparities.

The challenge for those of us who share Dr. King's dream is clear. We have to pick up the cross that he dared to carry for us. It is time for us to complete his journey. It is time for us to reestablish an encampment in Washington from which to launch our own style of lobbying and nonviolent confrontational activity with those who are establishing the policies that are feeding militarism, materialism (economic exploitation), and racism. It is time for the people of the cities and towns of our country, frustrated with the downward spiral of life, to rise up and take part in the siege of Washington. While our issues and needs are many, we must lay siege to our federal government until it demilitarizes, creates a fair taxation policy, and develops governmental policies which are designed to eliminate the effects of racism, the disparities between people of color and whites.. Until we can accomplish this goal, our needs will remain unmet and Dr. King's dream will remain deferred.

Demands of the Fund the Dream Campaign

1. Gathering the Resources

   Militarism: Cut Spending for War

   Immediately begin the process of demilitarization by adopting the position of the Democratic Party Congressional Black Caucus and Progressive Caucus that the budget be cut by $100 billion dollars.

   Last year, one half of our discretionary budget as a country was devoted to finance the military industrial complex in its pursuit of corporate welfare and world domination through the budget allocations to the Defense Department. Three hundred and fifty billion of our discretionary budget went to defense. All the other discretionary categories were financed out of the remaining three hundred and fifty billion. The leading category of social spending was education at fifty billion. In order, to give an illustration of the woeful inadequacy of this amount for education, let me cite two examples.

   While Democrats and Republicans heralded their joint work on the No Child Left Behind Act, the reality as Democrats and Republicans are beginning to acknowledge is that the funding is inadequate to accomplish the task. In Boston, the School Department had to limit the number of students who could receive the supplemental education to which they were entitled because the Department had not received enough money through the Act to provide education to all who were entitled. In Utah, a Republican stronghold, the legislature is considering legislation, which would require the state to only comply with the provisions that the federal government funds would pay for.

   A second example of the inadequacy of the $50 billion for education is that a joint Congressional Committee in 1998 announced after a study that $112 billion was necessary to finance the rehabilitation necessary to bring all school buildings in the country into good condition. Last year's Department of Education budget provided no money for school renovation or building. However, Congress gave the President $187 billion dollars beyond the Defense Department's $350 billion in order to finance the government's incursion into Iraq.

   Another example of the budget inadequacy is the fact that the federal section eight program which is key to fighting homelessness throughout the country is fighting for its life as the administration keeps cutting the money available in the name of fiscal responsibility. City services are cut and infrastructure improvements are put on hold as cities receive less money from their state governments and find that the Washington cupboard has nothing in it to help them with their plight. Yet, money surges into Homeland Defense and the financing of bioterror labs to deal with the terrorism engendered by our militaristic foreign policy.

   Obviously, the projected saving of $100 billion dollars by following the CBC and PC recommendation will neither end militarism nor finance all the investments needed. However, it would begin to move the Defense Budget funding in the right direction and force Congress and the country to begin to rethink our defense strategy in a changing world. Only through demilitarization and curbing corporate power can the healing necessary for this country begin.

   Materialism (Economic Exploitation): Reinstate Taxes on the Wealthy and Corporations

   Immediately repeal the tax cuts initiated by the Bush administration that benefit the wealthy and develop an equitable tax policy that accomplishes the dual objective of requiring those individuals that earn more pay a greater percentage of the income and requiring corporations to pay their fair share by eliminating the tax loopholes.

   While materialism surges around us seemly unchecked by common sense or morality, the most extreme form is the political manipulation by the rich to deprive the government of a fair share of the resources they have generated. This is the most extreme form of materialism since it deprives the government of the resources necessary to maintain a balance between the economic classes in the country. Since as people of color we find ourselves at the bottom of the economic spectrum, our very survival depends upon just policies of redistribution.

   Without government intervention through taxation and other regulatory policies, there is nothing to protect the less well off from the domination and oppression of those who are doing well. The most glaring American historical example occurred during the nineteen twenties when corporate greed soared unchecked, destroying the economy and plunging the country into depression. F.D.R. was viewed by many of the rich as an enemy of his class. In fact, he was the best friend they had since his redistributive policies enabled him to stave off the revolutionary forces that were attracting the attention of frustrated white workers.

   In advocating for a progressive tax policy, which takes more from those who have more, we must keep in mind that it is government that creates the environment in which individuals and corporations can establish firm economic foundations as well as financial assets significant enough to be described as wealth. At the most straightforward level, without fire and police services, businesses of all sizes would be unable to operate. Roads and transportation systems are as essential for business operation as they are for individuals. Government contracts play a major role in the wealth of individuals and corporations of this country. Without a doubt, the $167 billion dollars pumped into our economy has played a significant role in the stock market surge. It is only fair that the government gets a equitable share back fir redistributive purposes since corporations consider only the bottom line.

   What expectation is there that those of us of African descent will ever have the resources necessary to escape from the effects of slavery and neoslavery if the government does not develop a fair redistribution system? Similarly, how can other people of color and the white working class escape the effects of wage slavery without governmental redistributive mechanisms? Health care (both mental and physical), public education, job training for those out of school, WPA type programs, drug prevention and rehabilitation programs to list a few critical areas of need all require government financing. Of what benefit are even progressive elected officials if they are participating in a system that is wired to meet the needs of the wealthy?

2. Funding the Dream

   Racism: Eliminate Racial Disparities

   Immediately launch a War on Racism beginning with a study of governmental policies to determine the extent to which those policies are eliminating racial disparities. Policies that have little effect on the disparities or increase them must be replaced with policies designed to eliminate them. The studies should begin with the War on Drugs policy.

   The elimination of racism is obviously a complex issue. However, any serious attempt to eliminate racism must begin with the elimination of the effects of racism on those targeted by it. A racial disparity analysis is in fact an examination of the effect of racism in a particular area of human life. Since the American government nurtured racism through enactment of government policies that maintained a system of slavery and neoslavery, it has a responsibility to focus its resources on the elimination of the effects of racism.

   It must begin its work by assembling data on racial disparities of the various cultural and national groups viewed as people of color. It must then analyze the extent to which government policies are reducing the racial disparities among these groups and whites. Those policies, which are having little beneficial effect, as well as those, which are increasing the disparities, must be replaced with policies designed to eliminate them. By demilitarizing and creating equitable tax policies, we will create the resources necessary to eliminate the disparities through adequately funded government policies.

   To eliminate the disparities, the government would have to enact policies that result in universal health care; sufficient affordable housing; quality public education that eliminates achievement gaps; transportation that serves the needs of inner city residents; and labor policies that enable workers to get their fair return for their labor as a start. Ironically, the type of policies necessary to eliminate racial disparities are the policies needed by a growing number of whites.

   The War on Drugs policy is suggested as the initial focus given the extent to which it is increasing racial disparities while having minimal effect on its goal-reducing drug use. In addition, it consumes an inordinate amount of resources. These resources need to be used for drug education programs, drug rehabilitation programs, job and entrepreneurial training programs, national public works program, and the other governmental initiatives necessary to help those mired in poverty become productive citizens.
   Instead a growing amount of resources are being invested in jail cells. In 1973, there were 500,000 individuals in jail. Today, there are 2,000,000 and half of them are of African descent and as many as 500,000 Latinos. It is estimated that 80% of those incarcerated are there for nonviolent drug crimes.

   While in jail, they don't receive the educational or other self-development tools that will enable them to establish a better life when they leave incarceration. In fact many are kept in isolation units that the Supreme Court in the early 1900s found to be inhuman. Ironically, prisoners are often able to continue their drug use if they are able to meet the market price established by their jailers. When these individuals come out of jail, they find themselves discriminated against by employers who can turn them away by simply saying-- we don't hire those with records. They are not eligible for public housing or subsidies. They are often not eligible for federal grants for education if their crimes involved drugs. In many states their right to vote has been taken away from them. Obviously, this process of marginationalization has a devastating effect on the person who had been incarcerated as well as their families leading to increased disparities.

   This policy is perhaps one the most glaring examples of how government policy itself can be a major force in increasing the growth of racial disparities. The War on Racism must identify all the policies, which increase such disparities and develop new policies, which can lead to their elimination. Dr. King's dream can come true. This country has the resources necessary to make it come true. The question is do we have the will necessary to wage the type of nonviolent struggle necessary to Fund the Dream?