Aug 282016
Martin Luther King, Jr. influenced my political thinking more than any other individual. I was fortunate to have worked under him on Vietnam Summer and to have been present on the Washington Mall fifty-three years ago today on August 28, 1963. It’s hard to believe that we are once again fighting the battle to secure the voting rights won as a result of his dream, and to restore them, where racist Republicans are outlawing the right to vote. After his speech, I need say nothing more.
10 Responses to “Keep Dreaming His Dream!”
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I would say we are STILL fighting. Because it went underground, we were insufficiently aware of how strong it still was – and – I assume that it was still growing under cover of what they call Political Correctness and I call Civility and Good Manners.
Bryan Stevenson speaks eloquently and, I think accurately about this: "You see, there’s a smog that’s hovering in the air. It’s a pollution created by our history of racial inequality . . . We’ve got to talk about the fact that we are a post-genocidal society." You can see more of the speech here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzPUmQfo3B8&feature=youtu.be He starts by addressing the difference between how we treat alcohol and how we treat drugs, but quickly moves into race and genocide. Partial transcript in case you want to quote anything.
It's consistently placed in the pantheon of "Greatest Speeches in History" along with Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" and "Second Inauguration", and FDR's "Four Freedoms".
This was one of the greatest speeches in my lifetime. I cannot believe that all the progress we thought was made in the sixties has been reduced to the racism and division we have now.
I was too young and too far away to hear about it at the time, but learned, and heard the full speech in my formative years in the early seventies and it made a lasting impression on me then. I find it rather disquieting that MLK's speech has lost nothing of it importance over time and that his dream seems only to drift away from being realized. I'm sure progress was made over the past 50 years, but Republican forces have managed to turn back the clock. It seems we need a new Martin Luther King who inspires people and makes them want to realize that dream.
In a way we do in Bernie Sanders. If only so many weren't just using him.
I have hopes for Dr. Barber, as more people start to hear him. On the secular side, I have hopes for Bryan Stevenson.
I look at Lucia's six kids, as I did in church today, and I see MLK's dream alive in their smiles and giggles. Of course, we are in Canada where there is racism, but it is not the state sponsored racism that seems to be so present in many US states.
And I echo Pat's recent comment about First Nations peoples who have been subjected to copious amounts of racism, individual and state sponsored. This has been a particular stain on Canadian history.
Yes, I talk from a position of white privilege, but I would like to see "human privilege" where all are equal as intended by the Creator.
When Martin talked of freedom for colored people, he meant people mof all colors… even white.
Thanks all!! Hugs!!
Just as the South won Reconstuction, after loosing the war, the bigots of the right have worked to undo Civil rights Act progress, Voting rights Act progress, block the Equal Rights Amendment, anything that threatens their twisted picture of the world!