Guests
Most of the guests are all African-American leaders. One of the guests in the episodes is a former Secretary of State, General Colin Powell who during the speech by Dr. King, he was an army officer in Vietnam while his wife and son were in Birmingham. The soldier heard about the speech after many weeks when he received a letter from her wife. The second guest was John Lewis a Congressman in Georgia and a renowned fighter of civil rights. While Luther King Jr was making his speech, Lewis was standing on the same podium. He is well known of his strong and what would be termed as militant speeches. He was inspired by Dr. King who he termed as his hero. He can always be remembered for the movement in Selma, Alabama in 1965. The third guest was Jack Reed who is a senior Democrat on the Senate serving in the services committee. He comes from Rhodes Island. The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee belonging to the Republican Party, Representative Mike McCaul was also involved in the discussion. In addition, other guests were David Rohde a columnist at Reuters specializing in foreign affairs and Margaret Brennan who is a state correspondent in the State Department. To shed more light on the legacy by Martin Luther King junior, the president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund who began her career in Mississippi as a lawyer for the NAACP, Marian Wright Edelman was brought in. The president of NAACP going by the name of Ben Jealous was also integrated in the discussion. To conclude on the guest list was Taylor Branch. Branch is a renowned historian who wrote four books about the legacy of Luther including “The King Years’. All the guests were hosted by CBS News Bob Schieffer.
The topic discussed mainly dwelled on Martin Luther King’s dream. It looks at what Dr. King imagined America to be. From there, there is a comparison targeting to consider whether all that Martin Luther dreamt of has come to reality. It goes to an extent of analyzing the current racial relations in the country and discussing whether the best is yet to come. To add to the subject, there have been discussions on the ongoing conditions in Syria and Egypt. Most of the guests have shed light on those happenings and they have taken an extra mile to advice the U.S President on the possible actions that should be taken to stabilize such regions.
When it comes to the crisis in Egypt and Syria, the discussions in the video seem to indicate that America has a responsibility to ensure stability in the entire world as one community. To begin with, the U.S government should commit to assessing the crisis in such countries. It should then identity the objectives of the groups causing deaths and disrupting peace in such victim countries. From this point, America should identify the objectives of moving in to stabilize the countries once again. One of the main duties that America has to discuss and establish control on is weaponry. For instance, chemical weapons have been on the increase in the Middle East. Prohibitions should be established on this baring in mind the consequences that come along with such actions. American should realize the need to use its military in such regions but the extent to which the military operates should be considered. For effective and efficient actions, America needs to improve its relation with most of the countries in the world. This will put them in a position to acquire timely information and support from the rest of the world when such massive crisis erupts in the world. There should primary concern that whenever the U.S sends its troops to such areas, analysis should be done to ensure that it is realistic to avoid losing most of the soldiers to risks that would have been avoided otherwise.
Personal Opinion
If martin Luther King would appear and analyze the happenings in America, his conclusion would be that the country has put a lot of effort to avail a society that seeks to support anti-racism. He would be glad to see a lot personnel from varying races occupy top institutions in the country and walking freely in the streets as well. However, I think he would go further to propose that the government does much more. This follows therefore that, strict measures need to be established to eliminate racism completely. Looking at the current world, there has been massive openness of boundaries a situation in that would result to a future America that will be occupied by even more racial balance. When that time comes, the institutions and the government in place should ensure that there are systems in place that support racial integration even on delicate matters such as voting. They should all be considered as Americans and not judged on the base of origin or skin color.
There is need for America to demonstrate the influence it has on the world by ensuring that stability is regained in Syria and Egypt. It should be on the forefront. This is because, considering the current trends, America has been facing judgment and competition from countries such as China. Once they move to deal with such complicated matters as they are happening, its relationship with the rest of the world will only be boosted as they will continually be termed as a superpower.
