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What These Words Can Do
Jan. 18th, 2010 03:55 pmIf you have ever wondered what the big deal was about Martin Luther King, today is your day to find out.
For me, it was that he used reason, documentary evidence (the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence), logical arguments, and absolute discipline (refusing to give into to violence when tempted from all angles by the actions of the populace and the establishment), at the end of the day through sheer sticking to his argument, like water drip dripping on rock he held America to its own promise. And so changed the world.
His arguments were impenetrable, like force fields, allowing marginalized and oppressed peoples to press forward the world over, then and now. There is a reason we have to yearly celebrate the day of his birth, and that is that we as human being can't afford to forget. As our world becomes more diversified with each passing century, or even half century, we cannot put to bed these ideas of civil rights, of equal protection, and of societal nondiscrimination.
These needs come in overlapping cycles; change the group, change the era, change the wrong that needs to be right, you still have the same story. The remembrance of Dr. King's birthday is the reminder that even our words, especially our words, no matter how little, add to the flow until it becomes a mighty river.
Take, and apply, and keep passing on the message.
ALL HERE AND NOW
We don't need to utter but three words to tell this nation what we are talking about.
They aren't big words, you don't need to have a great vocabulary to utter them. You don't need to have a philosophical bent to grasp them. They are three little words.
But we want to let the world know that these words describe what we mean and what we are determined to do about racial injustice.
One is the word "all." We don't want some of our rights, we don't want a few token handouts here and there. We want ALL of our rights.
The other word is "here." There are some people who say that we need to go back to Africa. And then there are some others who tell negroes in the South to leave the South. You can't be free so get out.
But down in Alabama and Mississippi, and Georgia and South Carolina, we are saying something else now. We want all of our rights, and we want all of our rights HERE, in Alabama and Mississippi and South Carolina.
And then there's a third word, it is the word "now." We're not wiling to wait a hundred years for our rights. We are not willing to wait 50 years for what is ours on the basis of the Constitution of these United States and the authority of God himself. No we are not willing to wait another 25 years for our rights.
We can hear voices telling us to slow up. We can hear voices telling us to cool off. Our only answer in calm, patient terms is that we have cooled off too long and if we keep cooling off we'll end up in a deep freeze.
We must go on and say-- No, what we are saying to this nation is that we want all of our rights, we want them there HERE and we want all of them not next year, not next week, but we want them NOW. At THIS hour. This is what we're saying.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
For me, it was that he used reason, documentary evidence (the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence), logical arguments, and absolute discipline (refusing to give into to violence when tempted from all angles by the actions of the populace and the establishment), at the end of the day through sheer sticking to his argument, like water drip dripping on rock he held America to its own promise. And so changed the world.
His arguments were impenetrable, like force fields, allowing marginalized and oppressed peoples to press forward the world over, then and now. There is a reason we have to yearly celebrate the day of his birth, and that is that we as human being can't afford to forget. As our world becomes more diversified with each passing century, or even half century, we cannot put to bed these ideas of civil rights, of equal protection, and of societal nondiscrimination.
These needs come in overlapping cycles; change the group, change the era, change the wrong that needs to be right, you still have the same story. The remembrance of Dr. King's birthday is the reminder that even our words, especially our words, no matter how little, add to the flow until it becomes a mighty river.
Take, and apply, and keep passing on the message.
ALL HERE AND NOW
We don't need to utter but three words to tell this nation what we are talking about.
They aren't big words, you don't need to have a great vocabulary to utter them. You don't need to have a philosophical bent to grasp them. They are three little words.
But we want to let the world know that these words describe what we mean and what we are determined to do about racial injustice.
One is the word "all." We don't want some of our rights, we don't want a few token handouts here and there. We want ALL of our rights.
The other word is "here." There are some people who say that we need to go back to Africa. And then there are some others who tell negroes in the South to leave the South. You can't be free so get out.
But down in Alabama and Mississippi, and Georgia and South Carolina, we are saying something else now. We want all of our rights, and we want all of our rights HERE, in Alabama and Mississippi and South Carolina.
And then there's a third word, it is the word "now." We're not wiling to wait a hundred years for our rights. We are not willing to wait 50 years for what is ours on the basis of the Constitution of these United States and the authority of God himself. No we are not willing to wait another 25 years for our rights.
We can hear voices telling us to slow up. We can hear voices telling us to cool off. Our only answer in calm, patient terms is that we have cooled off too long and if we keep cooling off we'll end up in a deep freeze.
We must go on and say-- No, what we are saying to this nation is that we want all of our rights, we want them there HERE and we want all of them not next year, not next week, but we want them NOW. At THIS hour. This is what we're saying.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
