Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King.

[JohnT]

You changed our country for the better. Thanks!

[orange]

Don't particularly like the man, but his message is great and clear

[Az]

From what I know, he seemed to be a good man, and his message was great. I don't know about the 'day' though. MLKJ day just sounds stupid. 'civil rights' day and stuff like that.

[Drake Tungsten]

Thanks to all the other civil rights leaders as well. It's really too bad that Martin Luther King gets all the credit for the movement, but what're going to do?

[SlowwHand]

Dr. MLK was an excellent leader, teacher, and human-being.

Thanks, John.

[Boris Godunov]

I see no reason to dislike MLK as opposed to the leaders of any other civil movement. He had his faults, but that's what made him human.

The world was made a worse place when he was murdered.

[chequita guevara]

And a socialist too!

[JohnT]

We're not all perfect, Che. Why don't you leave the mans shortcomings out of this.

[SlowwHand]

Which is it, Che? You a Communist or a Socialist?
Whatever is this week ?




edit: There, dipstick. Wouldn't want my finger sliding to key next to correct key to excite you too much.

[Nubclear]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
You a Communist or a Socialist?

Oh well....Now we have only one display instead of two. Thats unfortunate

Anyway, MLK was a great man and hopefully someday America will truely be a nation of not blacks or whites but human beings, just as he wanted

[Az]

We're not all perfect, Che. Why don't you leave the mans shortcomings out of this.

exactly... If only he'd been a communist. p

[Ben Kenobi]

While we don't have a MLKD here in Canada, some of us still celebrate anyways.

Thank you Dr. King for your words, your sacrifices and your courage.


Address to civil rights marchers by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 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 Proclaimation.

This momentous decree came as a great beacon of hope to millions of slaves, who had been seared in the flames of whithering 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 Anerican 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 his 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 quicksands 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 dispair.

I say to you, my friends, we have the difficulties of today and tommorrow.

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 slaveowners 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 interpostion 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 symphomy 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 father's 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 curvacious 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."

[JohnT]

[chequita guevara]

I like his Letter from Birmingham Jail better.

Sloww, all communists are socialists, so I'm both a communist and a socialist.

[Arrian]

MLK. One of the very few human beings born who, presented with a real problem, conciously chose non-violent protest as his method of change, and made progress.

-Arrian

[chequita guevara]

You can't talk about the non-violent achievements on MLK without considering the rather violent context in which they occurred. On the one hand, a rather extreme level of violence was directed at the movement. On the other hand, the threat of violence from the Black population always existed, articulated by such leaders as Roy Wilson, Malcom X, and the Black Panthers. As is often pointed out, if there was no X, there'd have been no King.

[Ben Kenobi]

Che-

It's like choosing between two masterpieces.


I agree with Che!

[DuncanK]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I like his Letter from Birmingham Jail better.

Sloww, all communists are socialists, so I'm both a communist and a socialist.

It depends on what your definition of a Socialist is. Lenon called himself a socialist only because he knew that he was no longer a Communist.

In general, the socialists today want to work whithin the capitalist system, not overthrough it.

[DanS]

One of the best persuaders this nation has ever seen. Thank you MLK!

http://www.historychannel.com/speech...speech_167.ram

[DuncanK]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Thanks to all the other civil rights leaders as well. It's really too bad that Martin Luther King gets all the credit for the movement, but what're going to do?

Forget the leaders for a sec. What about the virtually unkown foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement? People tend to give MLK too much credit, even if he deserves a lot as a great world leader. They tend to forget, however, that a great many people worked in the Movement.

[Drake Tungsten]

That's why we should have a "Civil Rights Day" instead of a holiday that perpetuates the myth that MLK was the end-all, be-all of the civil rights movement.

All just a part of my plan to rid the world of holidays devoted to individuals who are not deities...

[Kramerman]

MLK's speech always sends chills down my spine... he ways a great thinker, and an even better public speaker. I thank MLK for making this country an even better place. May he rest in peace.

Kman

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by DuncanK


Forget the leaders for a sec. What about the virtually unkown foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement? People tend to give MLK too much credit, even if he deserves a lot as a great world leader. They tend to forget, however, that a great many people worked in the Movement.

I believe it was Napoleon who said "An army of rabbits led by a lion is preferable to an army of lions led by a rabbit. The "foot soldiers" of the movement would have just been so many busted heads, so many pick handles in the gut, so many targets for firehoses, dogs, clubs, so many shallow graves in the boonies, if it hadn't been for leaders with enough drive and charisma to capture the attention of the media, and of civil rights supporters and enemies. Civil rights had languished for decades, and there was always something to come along and put it on the back shelf.

[SlowwHand]

MLK was the start of passive demonstration in the U.S.
Foot soldiers kind of wander around, without leadership.

[Ramo]

An amazing man.

[cavebear]

I'm not a PC person. I do not make a point of mentioning positive things about people who are noted by holidays, etc.

But I will say, on this day, that Martin Luther King, the person of this holiday, did some things that were worth the effort, that benefited many people, and that are worthy of notice.

I'm old enough to remember him. I'm old enough to remember the details of what he fought against. But even when I was younger and did not know who he was, the message that he would elegantly express in the future was part of my upbringing. I did not find his words strange or threatening; I found them sane and reasonable.

Given the anger and divisiveness that came after, perhaps we should all have appreciated the more reasonable and moderate voice of MLK at the time...

[MRT144]

this day is only good for students...i have to go to work in a few minutes

oh and he was pretty wicked cool

[chequita guevara]

For those of you who want to honor the man who challenged us to honor ourselves, tonight on PBS, The Murder of Emmett Till. Jim Crow wasn't about peeople not bein' able to use a bathroom or sit on a bus. It was a system of state-sponsored terror that lasted almost a hundred years. It was one hundred days after Emmitt Till's body was pulled out of the Tallahatchie River that Rosa Parks made her protest, which led to the rise of MLK.

The amazing dichotomy is that the same history which shames us is also the history which shows the true worth and dignity of humanity.

All of us Americans should watch the show tonight. We must never forget.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DuncanK
It depends on what your definition of a Socialist is. Lenon called himself a socialist only because he knew that he was no longer a Communist.

Communists are a subset of socialists. Therefore, all communists are socialists but not all socialists are communists. I am a communist and a socialist.

[DuncanK]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat


I believe it was Napoleon who said "An army of rabbits led by a lion is preferable to an army of lions led by a rabbit. The "foot soldiers" of the movement would have just been so many busted heads, so many pick handles in the gut, so many targets for firehoses, dogs, clubs, so many shallow graves in the boonies, if it hadn't been for leaders with enough drive and charisma to capture the attention of the media, and of civil rights supporters and enemies. Civil rights had languished for decades, and there was always something to come along and put it on the back shelf.

So MLK could have done it all by himself huh? No, that certainly isn't true. In fact, I hate to say it but the media wouldn't have even listened to him if it had not been for the people in the trenches. We can't say with as much certainty that the media would not have paid attention to those participating in the sit-ins and the voter registration drives etc.. That is where all the news came from. I agree that MLK was very persuasive, but talk really accomplishes very little, unfortunately. Look at the Montgomery bus boycott. That hurt some people economically. When you do stuff like that you make a differences. The people who participated in that kind of stuff made the sacrafices to make a difference.