untitled/unfinished/unpublished essay 

          Ignorance is a state of being. The whole point of scientific inquiry is to become knowledgeable and thereby defeat ignorance. We thrive in this age of enlightenment because we are curious. We satisfy our curiosity through informative investigation. That investigation, to establish fact and develop evidence, occurs through scientific inquiry. No matter the area of curiosity or academic endeavor, in this age of enlightened thought, facts are sourced. In that way trusted sources become the building blocks of our arguments. Our arguments are the summation and conclusions of our investigation. Our sourced, fact based arguments, are truth. It is the way, as partners in this human endeavor, we move forward.

Recently our lexicon has been invaded by the term “Fake News.” Like the, “Old Okie-Doke” of the past, fake news, as it is currently being set upon us, is merely the attempt to blind the populace to the truth. We are all at one time or another gullible. However, if we fall victim to the ruse of fake news we have out distanced gullibility and are in the realm of idiocy. Only the idiot and lazy will continuously fall victim to the fake news ruse.

          In the last few decades Martin Luther King Jr.’s, I Have A Dream speech, has been belittled to a ruse. For it is the ignorant and the lazy who have not bothered to examine the text of the speech. They have accepted the rose colored glass offered by those who seek to avoid the harsh truth that King spoke. Martin Luther King Jr., through his eloquent oratory, exploded the truth of a debt owed in the ears of a nation too long deaf to its responsibility. The evidence, a primary source, is the speech itself. In the second paragraph King outlines what has brought the he, and an entire nation to that particular assembly. He chronicles the emancipation of a people who were held in bondage and how, a 100 years hence, were still seeking resolution to the promise of the nation that enslaved them. In the third paragraph King specifically states that it was time for the nation to make good on the promise written in the Preamble of the United States Constitution adopted in 1879. That promise was paid for by the red blood of the multi-colored soldiers who lent a hand and gave a life for the sake of freedom. That promise was reinforced by adoption of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to that constitution. It was that promise that King brought to the assembled that day. A close reading of King’s words reveal that his purpose was not to request, or ask politely that the injustice in the United States be resolved, but he demanded it with great urgency.

          Yes, Martin Luther King Jr. does suggest a world that could be. Yes, Martin Luther King Jr., stated his belief in the necessity that each individual respect the humanity of fellow human-beings. Yes, it is okay to teach that Martin Luther King Jr., on August 28, 1963 made the United States see further in his eyes, since it had not done it through its own. However, to suggest that the dream was the only purpose of the speech contradicts the evidence of the speech. How do we know that, because we have the primary source; we have curiosity; we have the energy driven by a desire to increase knowledge, and we have the academic tools to validate the source.

          Information is constantly flowing, and is now at the finger tips of many. However, the ability to source that information; the ability to challenge and validate that information; is the responsibility of each individual. Fake news is in search of the idiot, and like the slight-of-hand by the clever, the lazy and ignorant will fall victim to the okie-doke. The ability to reason using evidence as a base is the ability to understand the present state of America and a dream of what America could be; just as important, to understand the difference between the two.