{"id":4139,"date":"2009-01-19T07:10:31","date_gmt":"2009-01-19T07:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/providential-accident.html"},"modified":"2009-01-19T07:10:31","modified_gmt":"2009-01-19T07:10:31","slug":"providential-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/providential-accident.html","title":{"rendered":"Providential Accident?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is it perhaps a providential accident that today is Martin Luther King Jr Day, the man who decades ago dreamed of the day that will happen tomorrow? My favorite collection of Martin Luther Kings wriitngs is A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>. Here is his famous “I Have a Dream” speech… and this speech by Martin raises a question for me: Which of the themes or lines in this speech do you think will characterize, or hope will characterize, Obama’s Presidency?<\/b>
<\/i><\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\"MLKing.jpg\"<\/span>Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we
\nstand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great
\nbeacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of
\nwithering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their
\ncaptivity.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One
\nhundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of
\nsegregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a
\nlonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred
\nyears later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds
\nhimself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful
\ncondition.<\/font><\/p>\n

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check.
\nWhen the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and
\nthe Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every
\nAmerican was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as
\nwhite men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
\nHappiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar
\nas her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation,
\nAmerica has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked
\n“insufficient funds.”<\/font><\/p>\n

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We
\nrefuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of
\nthis nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand
\nthe riches of freedom and the security of justice.<\/font><\/p>\n

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the
\nfierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take
\nthe tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of
\ndemocracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the
\nsunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of
\nracial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a
\nreality for all of God’s children.<\/font><\/p>\n

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the
\nmoment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until
\nthere is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an
\nend, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now
\nbe content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
\nAnd there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his
\ncitizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our
\nnation until the bright day of justice emerges.<\/font><\/p>\n

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the
\nwarm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our
\nrightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our
\nthirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must
\nforever conduct
\nour struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative
\nprotest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic
\nheights of meeting physical force with soul force.<\/font><\/p>\n

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community
\nmust not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as
\nevidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up
\nwith our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound
\nto our freedom. <\/font><\/p>\n

We cannot walk alone.<\/font><\/p>\n

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march
\nahead.<\/font><\/p>\n

We cannot turn back.<\/font><\/p>\n

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights,
\n“When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is
\nthe victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as
\nlong as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of
\nthe highways and the hotels of the cities. We
\ncannot be satisfied as long as the negro’s basic mobility is from a
\nsmaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as
\nour children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their
\ndignity by signs stating: “For Whites Only.”
\nWe cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in
\nMississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
\nNo, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like
\nwaters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”<\/font><\/p>\n

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great
\ntrials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And
\nsome of you
\nhave come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of
\npersecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of
\ncreative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
\nGo back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia,
\ngo back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing
\nthat somehow this situation can and will be changed. <\/font><\/p>\n

Let us not wallow in the valley of
\ndespair, I say to you today, my friends.<\/font><\/p>\n

And so even though we face the difficulties of
\ntoday and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American
\ndream.<\/font><\/p>\n

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out
\nthe true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
\ncreated equal.”<\/font><\/p>\n

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of
\nformer slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the
\ntable of brotherhood.<\/font><\/p>\n

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state
\nsweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be
\ntransformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.<\/font><\/p>\n

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
\nnation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of
\ntheir character. <\/font><\/p>\n

I have a dream<\/em> today!<\/font><\/p>\n

I have a dream that one day,
\nd<\/em>o<\/em><\/span>wn in Alabama, with its
\nvicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of
\n“interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black
\ngirls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and
\nbrothers.<\/font><\/p>\n

I have a dream<\/em> today!<\/font><\/p>\n

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every
\nhill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and
\nthe crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh
\nshall see it together<\/font><\/sup><\/p>\n

This is our hope, and
\nthis is the faith that I go back to the South
\nwith.<\/font><\/p>\n

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of
\nhope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation
\ninto a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work
\ntogether, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for
\nfreedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.<\/font><\/p>\n

And this will be the day
\n— this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to
\nsing with new meaning:<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nMy country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I
\nsing. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nLand where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom every mountainside, let freedom ring!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And if
\nAmerica is to be a great nation, this must become true.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nAnd so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.<\/font><\/p>\n

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
\nPennsylvania. <\/font><\/p>\n

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.<\/font><\/p>\n

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But not only that:<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.<\/font><\/p>\n

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.<\/font><\/p>\n

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.<\/font><\/p>\n

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring,
\nwhen we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city,
\nwe will be able to speed up that day when all<\/em> of God’s children, black men and
\nwhite men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and
\nsing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:<\/font><\/p>\n

               
\nFree at last! Free at last!<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

               
\nThank <\/i>God<\/em> Almighty, we are free at last!<\/i><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it perhaps a providential accident that today is Martin Luther King Jr Day, the man who decades ago dreamed of the day that will happen tomorrow? My favorite collection of Martin Luther Kings wriitngs is A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. . 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