Monday, January 16, 2012 - A Day to Reflect

Frederick Douglas spoke:

"No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck."--from an Address at a Civil Rights meeting, 1883

Abraham Lincoln said:

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it."-- letter to H.L. Pierce, April 6, 1859.

Martin Luther King, Jr. sang out:

"... 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!"-- from his speech on the National Mall in Washington D.C., August 28, 1963.

Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream that many before him shared, but none so eloquently presented, so powerfully delivered, and so impassioned a nation as his "I Have a Dream" speech. You can find the text of the speech at the website for the U.S. Constitution Online. If you can read his words, listen to his speech, or watch him deliver it and be unmoved and unwilling to live up to that dream, you have no place on this planet or as part of humanity. We so often find petty reasons to behave poorly, but listen to Dr. King deliver this speech and dare to live up to the dream.