(belated) Happy Martin Luther King day

"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 today, 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, the Negro still is 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 languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an shameful condition.

In a sense we've 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, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable 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; a 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 make real the promises of democracy. 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 lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. 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 a 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 they have come to realize that 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 the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

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 our chlidren are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only."

We cannot 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 jail 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 South Carolina, 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, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, 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 the table of brotherhood.

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

I have a dream that my four little 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 down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exhalted, 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 that I will go back to the South with. 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 new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims' 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 the 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, and when we allow 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!"

-Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech August 28 1963

Any excuse to post the N-word, eh Tuttle?

Point of order to 'Muricans: shepard's pie refers to ones made with actual lamb and not the beef version usually served because we don't generally like lamb. Like, how did we just let that go to the wayside here?

Yeah I'd take lamb over beef any day. The problem is lamb is so much more expensive because we mass produce beef and the market is flooded with it.

The one thing @Dinner did tell me was to check out the halal stores around here. Meat is a slight bit cheaper and tastes much better than what I'd get at a grocery store.

Pro tip: buy it from a Mediterranean or Middle Eastern market instead of a big grocery store. There's a halal market not too far from me and their lamb prices are way more affordable than the chain groceries here or even Costco.

Wow, you guys got it bad.

Hopefully it doesn't carry over too far into your RL.

Luckily for the people here in Augusta organizing MLK events the weather pretty much cooperated. The weather has a knack for turning to shit on important days. And I'm not going to lie I really needed today off being I'm sick - I would have struggled at work.

Mod, my bad for forum selection, please move to different forum if you would.

Media Central?

On topic, it's a shame that fifty years after his death the US elected someone as president who was prosecuted under the Fair Housing Act MLK pushed for.

Do remember they also chose pence who feels MLK and his dream included a wall to keep brown people out.

If you're looking for a safe space with those who share your views, might I suggest Stormfront?

I bet you find him on there already.

Ah, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The day when we selectively quote the "I have a dream" speech and pretend that "Letter from Birmingham Jail" never existed.

I was gonna post the whole thing, but it's surpringly long:

https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

High school generally ignores anything but the I have a dream speech outside of AP classes. Yes, a student might do it on their own, but it is generally college where classes include more works from MLK. Maybe things have changed since I have not been in high school for many years. His dream speech is awesome, but it is one of the many works of MLK and there are so many great works by him.

It is also sad that he is often limited to race discussions and black history month. He should be more included in great thinkers all around and taught about in a larger scope than just around his birthday and one month out of the year. When you look at his works he is fighting for equality, but when he explains his views it is more human nature because if white people were to face the same prejudice of blacks we would react in similar ways and have similar problems.

A great speech by a great man.

And that 7-word sentence may be the first time I've ever posted something not containing even an atom of sarcasm or irony. When was the last time anyone here ever read it? Some have already shown here they have never read it.

I'd really prefer if it could just be moved.

Moved where, and why?

I'll move it, but only if you can cite something from MLK that implies he wouldn't want people actively talking about the issues he campaigned for.

Comes with a free radicalization manual too!

racist.

Brown. What a magical moron you are.

Sure. Then so is every person who criticizes the Catholic faith.

Catholicism is not a race, it is a belief.

No, I am just using the correct color. Would you prefer me say people with more melanin?

Watching right-wingers construct a hagiography of Martin Luther King never ceases to make me cringe.

"hagiography" - a word I have never used nor heard anyone use. I could google it but what does it mean?

That'd be far more accurate. I met plenty of Mexicans last week in the course of business. None of them fit the Crayola definition of brown. How easily you put people in boxes.