Perhaps the best way to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on his day is simply to quote from his greatest speech, one of the greatest speeches in American history:
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
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I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
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This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
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When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Just six words is all it takes to debunk the entire platform of the left; “by the content of their character”
All ‘justice’ is served on an individual basis.
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I still think Obama would have been fantastic as a public figure and speech-maker like Dr. King. Can you imagine if King had run for president? Some people were truly destined to remain pure of political office.
It is also important to note that Bayard Rustin was the person behind the scenes who organized the March on Washington
A DJ on the local jazz station played a couple hours of Dr. King’s speeches interspersed with gospel music. To understand the idea of liberal ‘progress’, compare those speeches with, oh, pretty much anything coming from the Left the last 40 years.
Greatest American that ever lived.
There was a great episode of State of the Re:Union about Bayard Rustin on Monday. His background, and his influencing MLK’s non-violence activism beginning during the Montgomery bus boycott – is often forgotten about.
According to who also spoke that day as the President of the Doctor King had the power the ability and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. He says in reference to the articulated in the Emancipation Proclamation It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. Another Biblical allusion is found in Kings tenth stanza No no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. This is an allusion to Amos 5 24. King also quotes from Isaiah 40 4-5 I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted… Additionally King alludes to the opening lines of s when he remarks this sweltering summer of the s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn… .