Sleep, sleep tonight And may your dreams be realized If the thunder cloud passes rain So let it rain, let it rain Rain on him - "MLK" U2
What you thought I was gonna quote "Pride (In the Name of Love)"?
Well, I can do that too.
Early morning, April Four Shot rings out in the Memphis sky Free at last, they took your life They could not take your Pride...
Uh, yeah. Bono found out later that Reverend King was killed in the evening, around 6 PM Memphis time. Oops. Still it's the thought that counts.
But if you want a quote that matters, here's one from the man himself:
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." - Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)
To the Black Lives Matter movement.
To the Stoneman Douglas students.
To the women in the streets marching for their lives, to the teachers striking for better pay and better schools, to every protester across the globe.
Tonight, fifty years ago, a preacher got up to give a speech at the Mason Temple in Memphis TN. The Reverend had spent some years fighting for civil rights for Blacks in a United States that had been segregated for decades, that had been violent towards minorities, that had been keeping down the poor and the poverty-stricken.
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.
