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George Nemeth · MLK: “America has defaulted on this promissory note”
January 19th, 2009
Listening to the speech and wondering how much has changed:
In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable 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 the Negro people a bad check, a check which 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. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice…
Thoughts?
via American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, Jr. – I Have a Dream.
Last 5 posts by George Nemeth
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January 19th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.” – MLK
January 19th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
It’s all right to talk about “long white robes over yonder,” in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! It’s all right to talk about “streets flowing with milk and honey,” but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can’t eat three square meals a day. It’s all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God’s preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do. – MLK I Have Been to the Mountaintop
January 19th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
It is amazing speech. I blogged on it tonight at jackzen.com. A great prelude to the Obama optimism.