[Vision2020] In Memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

[Tom Hansen]

Greetings Visionaires -

In memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pasted below is his "I Have a Dream"
speech (Washington DC, August 28, 1963) in its entirety.  If interested, you
may download the MP3 audio file recording of this speech at:

http://www.tomandrodna.com/notonthepalouse/Dream.htm

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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 have 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 have 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. 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. 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 ever 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 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. 

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. Some of
you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by
the 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 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 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 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. 

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 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 to 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."

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Take care,

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho