He would've been only 75 last Thursday. I wonder what our country and world would be like if he had been given more time with us.
By the way, the thread title comes from MLK's last sermon, the night before his assasination. He was explaning why he wouldn't have wanted to live in any other era but his own. It was a great message of hope.
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Even more than reading them, I love to hear the recordings of his talks. They always bring tears to my eyes and make me feel that I will work my heart out and give my life, if necessary, to make the world better. That it's what I'm here to do. I wonder if there is a CD collection of all his recorded sermons and speeches. That would be so great. I would love to have something like that.
I remember! I remember what it was like before the civil rights movement. Things are so very much better now, not just for African-Americans, but for women too, and everyone else. And America is the very best place in the world. It's the place where people of all different backgrounds and ethnicities, cultures and religions, mix the most freely and get along the best.
Diana Nash, a prominent member of the SNCC who staged the first sit-ins in the early 1960s, said she wanted people to realize that it was not just a few leaders, not just a small number of dynamic powerful individuals, who changed things. It was everybody, regular people, just the students and ordinary citizens. She wanted people to realize that they could change things too, and make things right. Anyone can. We can.
It's our job, even. We are Americans. That's what we do.
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Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King and recognize that there are ties between us, all men and women living on the Earth. Ties of hope and love, sister and brotherhood, that we are bound together in our desire to see the world become a place in which our children can grow free and strong. We are bound together by the task that stands before us and the road that lies ahead. We are bound and we are bound.
There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist There is a hunger in the center of the chest There is a passage through the darkness and the mist And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest
Shed a little light, oh Lord, so that we can see, just a little light, oh Lord. Wanna stand it on up, stand it on up, oh Lord, wanna walk it on down, shed a little light, oh Lord.
Can't get no light from the dollar bill, don't give me no light from a TV screen. When I open my eyes I wanna drink my fill from the well on the hill, do you know what I mean?
Shed a little light, oh Lord, so that we can see, just a little light, oh Lord. Wanna stand it on up, stand it on up, oh Lord, wanna walk it on down, shed a little light, oh Lord.
There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist, there is a hunger in the center of the chest. There is a passage through the darkness and the mist and though the body sleeps the heart will never rest.
Oh, Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King and recognize that there are ties between us. All men and women living on the Earth, ties of hope and love, sister and brotherhood.
I love James Taylor.
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So rarely do we hear people speak with such humility and greatness in the same breath. No matter the struggles he went through, you could see love in the man's eyes, love for everyone.
If only to have had more, we could be better as a people; if only to have had less, we would never have dared to dream for ourselves.
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You know, I positively dislike the affected preacher vocal mannerisms that Rev. King used. But somehow when I hear his speaches and sermons, they sink in anyway.
I hear Jesse Jackson try to do the same thing and all I hear is the bombastic, over-dramatized speech. I know Jesse's not nearly as eloquent as Dr. King, but still...
I wonder if Reverend King might've become a little less preachy in his later years, or if he would have maintained that speaking style to the end. I think he might've actually scared a lot fewer white people had he just talked in a normal voice and cadence.
Heck, I don't know.
But I can't even listen to Jesse Jackson without cringing. Same with Farakhan. Or Al Sharpton. They sound like what I think flim-flam snake oil salesmen in the old West must've sounded like. I'm sure I got that from Hollywood, though.
Oh well.
Good night Dr. King. I hope you keep inspiring us to do better!
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