By Beryl Wajsman
Tuesday, January 17, 2006Monday, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been seventy-seven years old. Tragically, he was struck down by an assassin's bullet at the age of 39. He had frequently told his wife that he felt he would never reach his fortieth birthday.
The commemoration of King's life and legacy reminds us of a time when leaders of conscience and character marched across our land listening to a different drumbeat. They taught us how to fight against the tyranny of hypocrisy and mendacity. Their example gave many of us the courage to pledge undying vigilance against the viruses of interposition and nullification.
Sadly, many of us came to political maturity knowing that some of the best people we would ever see had already had their heads blown off in the terrible times of 1963-1968. Their names echo across the years to us still.
Kennedy, Evers, Kennedy, King. Those killings led to a generational malaise of political mindlessness and mediocrity.
But in our memory and witness on this day we keep the flame of hope alive. a hope that helps us keep our eyes on the prize. The prize of a society where, in King's words, "people will be judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin or the contents of their pocketbooks"
I thought it appropriate to send out part of the text of his "I Have a Dream" speech that he delivered in Washington D.C. in 1963. The French translation follows the English.
~BPW
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 a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four 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 the state of alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, 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 with which I return to the South. 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.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a 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 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 snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks 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 every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
When we let 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!
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