I had the privilege of seeing The Honorable Mayor Corey Booker of Newark, New Jersey, speak at the Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast here a couple weeks back.  Booker is an outstanding orator (no, he really is — he’s funny and powerful and self-deprecating and seems to be speaking directly to you individually).  And his message of personal responsibility and action was a good one.

But it, and the more general theme of victimhood at the event, completely missed the mark.  There is one single overarching enemy of the downtrodden in America today (and I mean the downtrodden of all races, though the numbers are much more stark and hideous for some than others):  the demise of the family, and our culture’s dissolution of the concept of personal morality.  This subject was not even broached, not even hinted at, during the festivities two weeks ago.

Here’s an interview with the gifted economist Walter Williams in which he points out that very obvious truth:  “The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn’t do… And that is to destroy the black family.”

And here’s a trenchant and timely report from a teacher on the front lines.

If Mayor Booker wishes his gilded words actually to make a difference in society, this is a subject he can no longer afford to ignore.  And neither can the rest of us.