He spoke about the fight he was leading at the time for sanitation workers in the city, how it was not only for better wages but for better lives. He spoke about the need to confront poverty not just for Black families but ALL the poor. He spoke about the importance of standing up and speaking out. How boycotts were necessary. How the voices of the many were necessary to make those in power finally listen.
He talked about the brush with death he had years earlier, about how it woke him up to the importance of living now and fighting for life. He talked about all the threats he received, not just from Whites angry and driven by race hatred but by those in power who feared the changes he called for, not just against the racial dynamic in our country but the sharing of wealth that could break the cycle of hatred and violence that kept the poor down.
He spoke of hope, knowing that he himself might not live to see such a day.
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the Mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live - a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen... the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!...we killed him the next day.
For a brief while - 40 years later - we had a Promised Land. We had Obama, trying to fix a broken economy and end two bad wars, we had an end to hatred against gays, we had chances to fix our immigration system to keep those who wanted to live here and be Americans, we had an opportunity to listen to the better angels of our nature.
I'd like to think a time traveler met with Reverend King the hours before he gave his speech, and took him to see Obama and his family celebrate his electoral win in Grant Park in 2008. I'd like to think King wasn't told about the rise of trump, and the hatred that rose with him and stains our nation today.
King spoke about the long arc of the moral universe, bending towards justice. Right now that arc is a pretzel. But justice is real it's there, and it's worth protesting for, standing up for, praying for, living for.
We ALL still have that mountain to climb to a better nation, one that's not driven by fear, riven by hate.
He saw the Promised Land. He saw the hope that is justice in a moral universe.
Keep climbing.
1 comment:
Dr. King was a brilliant man and we're lucky to have had him. I like the part of that speech where he refers to the fire hoses turned on protesters and says that he knew of a fire that they could not extinguish.
That fire does burn on today, and we have our own brilliant minds still in the struggle, and as much of a setback as this administration is, the country will persevere, and some of those who live through it will end up better for having fought the battle.
It's the others we need to be attending to now, the ones who are not being made stronger by the adversity, but are simply being mowed down by the injustice.
We will be judged by history by how well we protect them from this shitstorm, and so far we are doing far better than anyone expected we would after the 2016 election.
-Doug in Oakland
Post a Comment