What does the "I Have A Dream" speech mean to you?

[Eric Renderking Fisk]

The Fedora Chronicles Electric Speakeasy Question Of The Week...

What does this speech mean to you? Feel free to share with us the historical importance; but I want to know if this speaks to you personally.

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 their 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 an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a 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. And so, we've 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. And 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. And 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 always 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 children are stripped of their self-hood 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."¹

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. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- 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.

And 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" -- one day right there 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 exalted, and 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."2

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I 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.

And this will be the 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 Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And 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 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!

[WineGuy]

MLK's speech stands out more and more to me as the last great plea for equality without animosity,revenge or hidden agendas. The "Dream" speech was pure in it's message of "all we want is equality, nothing more". Today most mouthpieces for the black movement i.e. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson(and progeny), Cornel West and their ilk push a mean spirited, false and parasitic form of social justice. We see the same tack used by other "suffering" groups such as the Palestinians who only want freedom and a homeland but really want to exterminate Israel. By the gays and lesbians who only wish not to be discriminated against but really want to socially engineer homosexuality into a third and equal sex(and by Hollywoods standards...a superior sex), and by the liberals who only want fairness but really want to snuff out capitalism, free markets and entrepreneurship. Yes, I long for the MLK days when equality meant equality and nothing more.

[The Oracle]

I think Wineguy hit the nail on the head. No leader in the modern civil rights movement and few Americans are as educated and articulate as MLK was. Discussions of social justice often make me wonder how he would feel about today's take on social justice. I wonder if he would see welfare the way I do, that is that it is a program meant to enslave people to the government. The poor are lead to believe that the government will provide; they only provide enough to keep them in the poorhouse, while securing their votes in hopes for more. The rich (define rich) have the fruits of their labor stolen by the federal government making them slaves to federal masters. This is the course that today's social justice has taken us on. Never once in this speech did I hear that the government should provide.

Truth is that we can never legislate equality in the heart. For people to have total fair and equal treatment it takes a combined effort of hard work on one side and opening of the hearts and minds on the other. Once this occurs it takes no less than three generations for the change of heart to occur and make it mainstream. MLK did understand this. I am obliged to give you all a link to "Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]". This letter opened my eyes to MLK beyond what the main stream media and history texts convey. After reading, my first thought was wow; this man wrote this in a jail cell with no reference materials that lead me to understand his brilliance.

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Ge ... ngham.html

[pmartin2894]

I see it differently. I suppose it is because I'm an unabashed liberal. I think, in many ways, things are worse than they were in 1963. MLK's speech occurred before the "War on Drugs" which ushered in an age where the USA with only 6% of the world's population, incarcerates 25% of the worlds prisoners...many of them minorities. Our prison population has more than trebled since the 1970s. Once you have a prison record it is darn near impossible to be self-supporting. You are out of the workforce and can't even join the military.
Another difference in perspective for me is that I am a woman. I know first hand about discrimination. It has certainly improved for women since the 1970s, but I can still see signs of it in our advertising, TV programming, and politics. I am horrified by the back sliding many State legislatures have engaged in to make access to birth control more difficult. There are still plenty of people out there who think that women belong at home. Period. In the early seventies I was denied an opportunity to train for an IT position at a Bank because the VP said he didn't want to "waste money" training someone who would probably get married and have babies. He'd never get away with that today, but the bias still exists...people are just more subtle in expressing it.
Much of the reason I went into the Air Force in 1973 was because I was sick of hearing, "When women can get drafted, then you can talk about getting equal rights." It probably was the best move of my life and helped me learn to tackle rejection as something that was not about me or any inadequacy that I had, but was about the limitations of the person/system I was dealing with at the moment.
I also know that people with disabilities face especially difficult challenges these days. All the politicians talk about "ending the dependency" on welfare, but if you are a child born with Downs Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy, you may always need support. It is so difficult to hear over and over again that you are a "burden on society." To hear that you are taking the fruit of other people's labor and they resent it. Like MLK said about people who face unearned suffering, I hope that people with disabilities are able to recognize the redemption in their situation. 1 in 10 people in this country have a disability. Unless we plan to let them die in the streets, we need to pull up our big girl pants and do what we can to make their lives meaningful and to relieve suffering.
I see the Occupy movement picking up the battle for social justice and civil rights...because today it affects 99% of us. But, just like there are women who think they don't need or deserve equal treatment, and there were black people who were afraid to see things change, there are plenty of 99% ers, who still identify with the 1% and think there's some proverbial slacker out there, getting high, watching TV and living off hardworkers like you and me. In a way, I wish that were the case. I wish people weren't born with disabilities, didn't have accidents and illness, didn't get sent to jail for breaking drug laws that we all know are ridiculous. It would be easy then. I would be the first to turn in some 30 year old guy scamming the system. But, the reality is that there are a lot of people with problems out there.
MLK's battle continues, except that now we know it isn't just about race. It's always about money and power and exploitation of one group by another.
And about Gay people? Why shouldn't they have a place in society and culture? What are you afraid of? I have plenty of gay friends and have not once been "hit on" or made to feel uncomfortable by them. And even if someday one of them does hit on me, how is that any different from someone heterosexual making an advance?
I am not a violent person. I never have been, but I am LOUD. I will keep right on protesting and advocating for my own rights and the rights of people who have been disenfranchised by our political system...in other words, the 99% of us who can't buy our government. MLK showed us the way. The sooner we all get on board and take a moment to walk in someone else's shoes, the sooner things will change for the better for all of us.

[WineGuy]

"And about Gay people? Why shouldn't they have a place in society and culture? What are you afraid of? I have plenty of gay friends and have not once been "hit on" or made to feel uncomfortable by them. And even if someday one of them does hit on me, how is that any different from someone heterosexual making an advance?"

pmartin, I don't recall mentioning being "hit on" in my posting above, you are either misunderstanding what I said or are trying to spin it to make me sound homophobic...which I certainly am not. I'm a graduate of Parson's School of Design in NY where the majority of the student body was/is gay. I have many gay friends and I'm a vocal supporter of their cause to "not be discriminated against" due to their sexual orientation. And by the way, I was hit on many times at Parsons and was not only not offended...I was flattered...I simply told the fellow I was straight. HOWEVER, I do not support the gay lifestyle being taught to children as a completely acceptable equivalent to heterosexuality. When it comes to adoption a gay couple is not the same or as good as a heterosexual couple for the child(please don't make the tedious argument that what if the hetero couple were drug addicts, sociopaths or poor) I personally know two gay couples that adopted children, they are great loving parents but don't tell me the child is absolutely as well off as if he/she had a mother and a father all things being equal.

But back in the spirit of MLK, I guess I'm part of the 1% that believes the constitution guarantees us the right to the "persuit" of happiness, it doesn't guarantee us happiness.

[Cousi]

Dr Martin Luther King Jr was a man who saw things pretty clearly. He was about equality, not entitlement. I get chills every time I hear a recording of this speech and I had goosebumps just reading it.

[The Oracle]

I wish I could believe that the Occupy movement was about ending discrimination. I don't see it that way and they have not done anything to convince me that they are anything more than a group of people that are mimicking the Bolshevik Revolution. They have done more harm to the little guy who is making his own way than to the people they claim to be against. Furthermore, no one here or anywhere is sounding the alarmist views that claim that we will have people (disabled and elderly) dying in the streets. The fact is that these are the people that government programs were meant for.

When it comes to discrimination of women, I agree that this was the case as recent as 30-40 years ago. I do not see it today, in fact just the opposite is occurring, many men are turned down that may (or may not) be more able to perform the job. The fact is that not every man can do some jobs, so not every woman can do some jobs; this is just reality. Does that mean that women are not qualified, no. However, the unfortunate truth is that many jobs have physical requirements that not everyone can pass, but those requirements are often pushed aside just so employers can say they are hiring women. Conversely, I have seen women who are determined and will outperform many men, or die trying.

Equal opportunity legislation was never intended to guarantee a job to someone who was not qualified. Likewise, assistance programs were never intended to be a sole source of income. They were not meant for the 99ers to spend 99 weeks on unemployment. They were not meant to support the people who were “sold a lemon” into getting sociology degrees with no marketable skills who are now in debt up to their eyeballs and will not go out and train to be an electrician, plumber or mechanic that will ultimately make as much as $70-$100 an hour. The fact is that there are a lot of vacant jobs, approximately 250,000 in the skilled trades that cannot be filled due to no one wanting them; that number is climbing.

The reality of Dr. King’s dream is that we all have an equal opportunity. It does not mean that we will all be successful or that we will not fail. There will always be those who will need help, there is no doubt about that. Yes, there is injustice in the justice system. The drug war has created lifelong criminals that under the three strike rule must be kept incarcerated while the murderer gets parole, worse yet their crimes in many cases are victimless. Does this affect the black community, yes it does. However, my reading of Dr. King leads me to the conclusion that he would take the stance that they should not use their situation as an excuse not to do all they can to pick themselves up. Do you think Dr. King would excuse the high rates of teen pregnancy, drug use and violent crime in the black community? I sure don't, and I do not believe that he would be making any excuses for it.