Kennedy’s words ring true for Connemaras being failed at inspections

The late President John F. Kennedy made his “Report to the American People on Civil Rights” on June 11, 1963.

A full 50 years later, his message apparently has not penetrated the upper ranks of the American Connemara Pony Society. Connemara breed officials have arbitrarily decided that the more refined Connemaras are not acceptable. These Connemaras are being failed at inspections and cannot be entered in a new official stud book. Adding insult to injury, the society has made clear that the discriminatory inspections are its No. 1 priority.

With apologies to Mr. Kennedy, I have chosen sections of his speech and altered the wording slightly to address the discrimination that refined Connemaras face today in America. Here is my version:

“I hope that every Connemara horse owner, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. The Connemara breed society in America was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all Connemaras are created equal, and that the rights of every Connemara are diminished when the rights of one are threatened.

“It ought to be possible for every American Connemara to enjoy the privileges of being a Connemara without regard to his type or color. In short, every Connemara ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case.

“The heart of the question is whether all Connemaras are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Connemara as we want to be treated. If a Connemara, because he looks too pretty, cannot pass an inspection, if he cannot be entered into an official stud book, if he cannot produce offspring that will be treated as legitimate Connemaras, if he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to stand in his place?

“This nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.

“We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free except for Connemaras; that we have no second-class citizens except for pretty Connemaras; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Connemaras?

“We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and as Connemara owners.

“It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk. It is time to act at the legal level and in all of our daily lives.

“It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this is a problem of one breed society. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.

“Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality.

“This is one country. It has become one country because all of us and all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents.

“We cannot say to a percentage of the Connemara population that you can’t have that right; that your children cannot have the chance to develop whatever talents they have; that the only way that they are going to get their rights is to go into the streets and demonstrate. I think we owe them and we owe ourselves a better country than that.

“Therefore, I am asking for your help in making it easier for us to move ahead and to provide the kind of equality of treatment which we would want ourselves; to give a chance for every Connemara to be educated to the limit of his talents.

“Not every Connemara has an equal talent or an equal ability or an equal motivation, but they should have an equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves.”