howdy peeps...
well only a few people know i'm shredding old personal info and re-filing new or relevent personal info and in going through some of my old files i found a photocopy of something from school...something that means more to a particular generation and race of people than to many but it struck a chord with me and i thought i'd type it out on here....many of you may recognise it but you may have only heard the 'key sound bite' words...but take aside a few of the race specific terms and information it should be a good guide to a great way to live well...sure i know it relates to a particular campaign etc...but read it through...it never fails to stir up something inside of me ... in a kind of way to which in the core of every human being there is the difference between right and wrong...etc...and in my opinion this was a man who no matter what the cost (coincidently was his untimely death) he was prepared to stand for what he truely believed in...to speak so passionatly on a subject he valued so dearly! in that particular day and age ... he was different.!! he was a visionary!! but most of all he was a passionate person and he STOOD FOR WHAT HE BELIEVED IN! no matter the cost!!
Martin Luther King: 'i have a dream'
(the following speech was delivered by the african-american civil rights leader Martin Luther King in 1963. The civil rights movement was a campaign for equal rights for african -americans. As part of this camgaign there was a massive demonstration of 210 000 people in washing DC which King addressed.)
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 realise 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 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 a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New Yourk 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 so 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 the 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, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment i still ahve a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
i have a dream that oneday this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truthes to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.' I have a dream what 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 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 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 the state of Alabama, whose govenor'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 plains, 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 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 snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks 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.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from 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!'
