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  1. #1
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    Thumbs up Martin Luther King - He had a dream.

    Today is Martin Luther King day. I want to take this opportunity to honor this important man and nobel prize winner, by reminding all of us what he said, what he stood for, and what he died for.

    May he always rest in peace, and never be forgotten.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "I Have A Dream" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr,

    Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

    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 of hope to millions of 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 colored America is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the colored American is still sadly crippled by the manacle of segregation and the chains of discrimination.

    One hundred years later, the colored American lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the colored American is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

    In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our great 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 to the inalienable 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 its colored people a bad check, a check that 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 security of justice.

    We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is not 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 promise of democracy.

    Now it the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

    Now it the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

    Now is the time to make justice a reality to all of God's children.

    It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of it's colored citizens. This sweltering summer of the colored people'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 colored Americans 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 colored citizen 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.

    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 colored person'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 selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for white only."

    We cannot be satisfied as long as a colored person in Mississippi cannot vote and a colored person 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 your trials and tribulations. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecutions 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 modern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

    Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you, my friends, we have 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 out in 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 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 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 engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every 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 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 climb 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 Pilgrim's 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 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 every hill and molehill of Mississippi and every mountainside.

    When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement 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 spiritual,

    "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
    Some very informative links.

    http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureate.../king-bio.html

    http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1964/press.html

    http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureate...cceptance.html

    http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/mlking.htm
    Last edited by Gen-T; 01-17-2005 at 10:54 AM.

  2. #2
    Beautiful.
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    More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads.
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  3. #3
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    A great tribute to a great man. Thanks Gen-T.
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  4. #4
    A great man that will be remembered for eternity. I just wish many of the people he fought for remembered what he stood for and tried to follow it.

  5. #5
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    A true believer. I have only big words for him.

    Thank you Gen-T for remind us.
    Lorand R. Minyo
    Co-Founder @ Neveli

  6. #6
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    On one board, they love him...

    On another, they hate him...
    73's, Kim
    Everything happens for a reason I make up.

  7. #7
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    http://www.americanrhetoric.com/spee...haveadream.htm

    Includes a mp3 of the speech. If you don't like reading or want to follow along. He was a great guy; thus we devote a day entirely to him.
    Tyler Cole
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  8. #8
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    Originally posted by KimmiKat
    On one board, they love him...

    On another, they hate him...
    Just wondering, the forum where they hate him wouldn't happen to be a "white power" forum now, would it?

  9. #9
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    It's just something about the way that man said "I have a dream!"...
    It's one of those things you will truly never forget.
    Lorand R. Minyo
    Co-Founder @ Neveli

  10. #10
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    There's a thread on one about a small group of Klan people in Tennessee demostrating against the MLK holiday.

    A couple of the mboard members complained the MLK was getting too much coverage in the media while most presidents except Bush get almost no coverage.

    Originally posted by SniperDevil
    Just wondering, the forum where they hate him wouldn't happen to be a "white power" forum now, would it?
    73's, Kim
    Everything happens for a reason I make up.

  11. #11
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    Originally posted by KimmiKat
    There's a thread on one about a small group of Klan people in Tennessee demostrating against the MLK holiday.

    A couple of the mboard members complained the MLK was getting too much coverage in the media while most presidents except Bush get almost no coverage.
    lol. I wouldn't demonstrate against the holiday even if I was in the Klan. The holiday means I get a day off from my job at the factory (or lack thereof)!

  12. #12
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    Our agency doesn't observe it, so it's a regular work day for us.

    Originally posted by SniperDevil
    lol. I wouldn't demonstrate against the holiday even if I was in the Klan. The holiday means I get a day off from my job at the factory (or lack thereof)!
    73's, Kim
    Everything happens for a reason I make up.

  13. #13
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    Back to topic . . .
    Quote Originally Posted by Gen-T
    Today is Martin Luther King day. I want to take this opportunity to honor this important man and nobel prize winner, by reminding all of us what he said, what he stood for, and what he died for.

    May he always rest in peace, and never be forgotten.
    True dat.
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  14. #14
    Originally posted by SniperDevil
    lol. I wouldn't demonstrate against the holiday even if I was in the Klan. The holiday means I get a day off from my job at the factory (or lack thereof)!
    I'm glad the rememberence of a great man who changed the history of America forever makes you happy because you get a day off

  15. #15
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    Originally posted by RossH
    I'm glad the rememberence of a great man who changed the history of America forever makes you happy because you get a day off
    It was a joke, but apparently your sense humor is lacking today.

  16. #16
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    "I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their tired bodies, education and culture for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the alters of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and non-violent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land 'and the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.' I still believe that we shall overcome."

    Martin Luther King, Jr.

  17. #17
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    I like Martin Luther King's speech.

  18. #18
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    Excellent post Gen-T

    Originally posted by Lorand M
    It's just something about the way that man said "I have a dream!"...
    It's one of those things you will truly never forget.
    Ditto! Very Inspirational
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  19. #19
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    I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the alters of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and non-violent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land 'and the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.
    That is so beautiful. I love the part about each sitting under the fig tree and having our own vine and not being afraid. Paints a wonderful picture of peace, provision and prosperity.

    King is speaking theologically (or I think he is) of the 1,000 yr Reign of Christ, and then the coming ages without end.

    Reminds me of the ancient passage by the Jewish prophet Isaiah -
    . . . and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
    I think that's so beautiful too, and ties in nicely with King's above passage. Such a fantastic thing of turning instuments of war into instruments of farm equipment, and feeding folks. Love the part about nations/people not learning war anymore.

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  20. #20
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    Unfortunately he was dreaming of an utopic paradise. Although he clearly changed a lot of things regarding segregation, coloured rights and general view over his people in the United States, there are still people being persecuted in Alabama, Mississippi, the KKK still exists and so on. This is what I found to be the greatest issue.

    Yesterday I heard the entire speech for the first time. It was full of hope, belief and pain...
    What touched me the most was the below passage, which would've made proud to shake that man's hand and ashamed by the concept that was violated outrageously:

    Quote Originally Posted by Martin Luther King
    "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
    Lorand R. Minyo
    Co-Founder @ Neveli

  21. #21
    Originally posted by Gen-T
    ...'and the lion and the lamb shall lie down together...

    Martin Luther King, Jr.
    ...The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf
    won't get much sleep.

    Woody Allen.


    IWDN - Really smart web developers... and me!
    More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads.
    One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction.
    Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

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