america celebrates the dream
by problembear
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. “ — Martin Luther King Jr.
48 years ago today……
(excerpt)
…
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!3
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August 28, 2011 at 1:34 pm
“I want you to share your bread with the hungry, open your homes to the homeless poor, remove the yoke of injustice
and let the opressed go free.” – Isaiah 58
August 28, 2011 at 1:40 pm
August 28, 2011 at 1:46 pm
August 28, 2011 at 5:06 pm
The American dream, King said at Lincoln University in 1961, “says that each individual has certain basic rights that are neither conferred by nor derived from the state. To discover where they came from it is necessary to move back behind the dim mist of eternity, for they are God-given. . . . The American dream reminds us that every man is heir to the legacy of worthiness.”
Sounds like that would conflict with our current system of quotas and set asides.
August 28, 2011 at 5:38 pm
What conflict?
August 28, 2011 at 5:54 pm
bs must be talking about the system of quotas and set asides that our government has granted wealthy corporations and the rich.
i don’t think MLK or JFK ever envisioned an america that provided welfare to the wealthy and denied people access to basic health care shelter and food.
August 28, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Really?
JFK wanted tax cuts to spur on the economy.
And MLK, do you think if he came back he’d see more black freedom or less?
August 28, 2011 at 7:31 pm
Tax cuts only create jobs if money is invested in the US.
Tax cuts for wealthy only create jobs overseas….. and now for the surrealistic kicker to the currently insane course of our nation today.
in order to extend tax cuts for the wealthy we must borrow more money to pay for them which only subsidizes more investment in offshore jobs at the expense of future generations.
at one time, an argument might have been made that less taxes for the wealthy provides more capital for investment in jobs for america. but no longer. and in fact this has not been the case for at least ten years. the wealthier people and companies tend to diversify their portfolios and for ten years those portfolios have been increasingly tending toward better returns through international corporations who have been decreasing staff in the US and increasing their staff off shore.
and now that the tax cuts are in place for the wealthiest in this nation- both parties can not afford to take them away. our political system requires candidates to be able to purchase television time to win elections. and they get this money from the well-heeled, who would be very loathe to contribute to any candidate who threatens these tax cuts. ergo- we no longer have representation of the people by the people and for the people. we now only have representation for those who have money. period.