Monthly Archives: August 2013

The “I Have a Dream” Speech: 50 Years

Today, August 28, marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which occurred during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and freedom. It’s truly an amazing speech. Here is the complete text.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

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.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.

This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

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.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

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.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

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.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to 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!”

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If Jesus Turned Water Into Wine….

This is a sign at the church my brother, Rick, attends in South Bend, Ind. They are apparently a very progressive church.

They were actually abbreviating “potatoes.” Somebody noticed the “issue” here, and they changed it to “taters.” But not before a photo could be taken.

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We Need More Slobs

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A sign in my less-than-orderly office says, “Creativity is not a pretty sight.” And now I feel validated in being a slob.

A new study published in Psychological Science shows that people are more creative sitting in a messy room. ““Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights. Orderly environments, in contrast, encourage convention and playing it safe.”

48 university students were asked to come up with 10 unconventional uses for ping-pong balls. Half were situated in a neatly-organized room, half in a messy room. The ideas were scored from “not at all creative” to “very creative.” The two groups came up with as many ideas, but the ideas from the messy-room students were more innovative.

Another study, though, shows that people in neat environments tend to be more thoughtful and more prone to make healthy choices and follow social norms. In other words: Boooring!

I’m wondering: what did Jesus’ carpenter shop look like? My instinct is to picture it as well organized, with every tool in its place and all sawdust swept up. But maybe Jesus didn’t care about neatness–a purely temporal thing. He’d rather spend his time on more important things. Just wondering.

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Ted Cruz for President

ted-cruz-canada-demotivator

So Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz, who is expected to run for President, was born in Canada–absolutely no doubt about it. But since his mom was an American citizen, the argument goes, he’s qualified to be president. Then we have Barack Obama, whose mom was an American citizen, and for whom no evidence exists that he was born anywhere but in the United States. But SOME right wing people–including the same ones who would vote for Ted Cruz–still insist Obama’s unqualified to be president.

About half of Republicans, according to surveys, insist Obama isn’t eligible to be president. They agree that his mother was American, but since (as they believe) Barack wasn’t born in America, he’s not eligible. By their own logic, Ted Cruz isn’t eligible either.

But nobody should expect logic from the Tea Party. It’s fun reading some of the articles on the internet in which Tea Party types try to explain away their own hypocrisy.

Amusingly, birthers seem to be changing their argument. What they REALLY objected to, they now say, has nothing to do with whether or not Obama was born on US soil. Instead, it’s about a massive conspiracy on Obama’s part to alter the facts about his birth, fabricate a birth certificate, etc.

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

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Fading History

Gotta shake your head over this. Hurricane Katrina, of course, happened in 2005. But a new poll shows that only 28% of Louisiana Republicans think George Bush is to blame for the slow federal response to Katrina. Meanwhile, 29% think Obama is to blame–though he didn’t become president until 2009–and 44% aren’t sure who to blame. We live in a world with more information than ever before, and yet.

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The Scorched Earth Assault of the Smartphone

Interesting piece on Time.com about industries that are losing money because of the popularity of smartphones.

  • Handheld electronic gaming systems
  • Board games.
  • Digital cameras and camcorders.
  • Garmin GPS devices.
  • Portable DVD players.
  • Built-in car navigation packages
  • iPods (yes, Apple is cannibalizing itself)

Those are the ones mentioned in the article. I would guess these products are also affected.

  • Pocket calculators.
  • Daytimers.
  • Portable voice recorders.
  • Printed periodicals.
  • Photo albums.

What am I missing?

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The Power of the Gun

gunrecoil

I just caught up with Walter Kirn’s excellent article in the New Republic last January, “What Gun Owners Really Want.” Kirn is a gun owner, but the article takes a very common-sense approach, showing where both sides–the anti-gun people, and the pro-gun people–are sometimes silly and unreasonable. It’s well worth reading.

I was intrigued by one part where he talked about some of the appeal, at least to him, of shooting guns.

“They push back when they’re fired. That’s the elemental fact involved…. They kick at your will in the instant they also project it, reminding you that force is always two-sided. It’s a shock the first time, an insult to the senses, but once you’ve learned to expect it, absorb it, ride it, recoil becomes a source of pleasure. You’re up on your board turning turbulence to flow….

“When I shoot at the range, I don’t feel personally powerful, but like the custodian of something powerful. I feel like a successful disciplinarian of something radically alien and potent….It’s not the gun that the so-called ‘clingers’ cling to and don’t like the thought of anybody screwing with. It’s not even the power of the gun. It’s the power over the power of the gun.”

Obviously, that’s not the only appeal of shooting. But it can be one thing, to at least some people. It resonates a bit with me.

This same principal, I’m guessing, applies to the allure of driving powerful cars, of engaging in extreme sports, of bull-fighting, of white-water rafting, and many other things. It’s the raw thrill of prevailing over something risky, powerful, or dangerous.

 

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Taking the Fun Out of Boyhood

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As a young kid, I remember friends coming over, and we’d play cowboy-and-Indians or Army. We would mow down the enemy, and we would die in dramatic fashion…over and over…while continuing to pop up after a token period of death to fight again. It was fun, it was imaginative. It was what boys do.

Read a fascinating article on Time.com about how schools aren’t letting young boys do what comes naturally–be boys. One 7-year-old boy was suspended for using a pencil to “shoot” a bad guy. In another school, a boy was suspended for throwing an imaginary grenade at “bad guys” to save the world. Tug of war, dodgeball and tag–these are violent and hurt the self-esteem of the “losers.” Superhero play–inappropriate and violent.

For boys, imaginative play typically involves action, but schools are banning it with zero tolerance policies. Innocent boys are getting suspended, punished, publicly humiliated for doing what most of us grew up doing.

Would schools be happier if boys played with dolls? Would that meet the school goals of reducing violence and improving self esteem? Just wondering.

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Make Up Your Mind

There are two ways to let people know you’re starting a new paragraph.

1. Indent the first line of the paragraph.
2. Leave a space between paragraphs.

But don’t do both–leave a space, AND indent. Unless we’re talking about a bulleted or numbered list. It’s wrong. It’s redundant.

And it looks stupid.

I needed to get that off my chest.

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“Suffer the Little Children….”

Congressman Scott DesJarlais

Congressman Scott DesJarlais

Last week, a Republican Congressman from Tennessee, Scott DesJarlais, held a town meeting. He’s a Tea Party guy. An 11-year-old Hispanic girl named Josie Molina, whose father was about to be deported, came to the microphone. She said, “I have papers, but I have a dad who’s undocumented. What can I do to have him stay with me?”

Desjarlais said, “This is a big, intimidating crowd, and I appreciate you coming forward and asking a question. But the answer still kind of remains the same, that we have laws and we need to follow those laws, and that’s where we’re at.”

Desjarlais is being criticized for an “uncaring” response. However, watching the video, I felt he handled it okay. It was a good, on-the-spot response. He’s got stupid views on some subjects and a terrible record of personal immorality. But in this instance, I don’t believe he was being insensitive.

However, what really disturbed me was the crowd’s reaction.

Here’s this courageous little girl who faces the prospect of having her father forcibly taken away, or of leaving her home, friends, school–her country–to be with him in a foreign land. She takes the risk of going before a person of power to seek help. And as the Congressman gives his answer as she returns to her seat amidst this unsympathetic crowd, the people around her whoop and cheer and applaud the Congressman’s answer.

“Yeah, put those wetbacks in their place!” they seemed to be saying.

“Take her daddy away!” is the sentiment Josie Molina would have heard.

It just struck me as very, very wrong. Turned my stomach, in fact. As one writer put it, “If there’s one place I wouldn’t want to be, it’s in front of a crowd that delights in the suffering of children.”

Would Jesus have sided with a child wanting to keep her family together, or with the crowd zealous about enforcing The Law?

Attitudes like this from Tea Party types is just another of the reasons I will no longer identify as a Republican. The Republican Party of my youth has been taken over by extremists.

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