Candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Iowa for 2014, Jonathan Narcisse addresses the guests at Des Moines’ annual MLK celebration. Narcisse asserts that the war on poverty that was begun by LBJ 50 years ago has not been won and poverty in Iowa is color blind. He invokes the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s speech Why We Can’t Wait. And, he asserts that the enemy to this war on poverty is “within” and “in the mirror.”

Candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Iowa for 2014, Jonathan Narcisse, addresses the guests at Des Moines’ annual MLK celebration. Narcisse explains that while blacks have survived slavery and racism “we have not survived our inability to marry the women who father our children.” And, “we can’t sustain a tutoring program, because we can’t figure out how to get someone else to pay for it.”

Narcisse states that if Martin Luther King Jr were here today “he would chastise us” for making excuses and that in the era of black presidents, secretaries of state, joint chiefs of staffs, TV and sports stars, “you can’t blame a lack of opportunity.”

“We must stop making excuses for why we can’t do better. We can find a ride to Prairie Meadows (race track) but we can’t find a ride to the PTA.”

“The answers to our problems are simple. We grab our children, we hold on”

Narcisse explains that when a young man is tragically killed due to recklessness, “we pack the church, we take time off work and pack the church to mourn,” but that when young people are honored for their academic efforts with a scholarship, so few show up that the presentations are held in a small conference room.

“We are the solution we are looking for.”