PSX5Central
Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: luckee on January 20, 2003, 09:05:00 AM
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Taken from a friend......
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense we have 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 would be guaranteed the inalienable 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 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. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God\'s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro\'s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro\'s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
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 slaveowners 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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Will Smith was the smartest man evar.
*edit
I apologise for making a joke-
But I do think it\'s a shame that a lot of black people only remember him and his teachings one day a year...
And I don\'t even get the day off of work- even though banks and the stock/commodities markets are closed.
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My history teacher has a great admiration towards Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and those who fought during the civil rights movement that he created a program called Sojourn to the Past where he takes high school kids to the places where civil rights events took place. They would stand at the Lincoln Monument and play Dr. King\'s speech. They walked a part of the path towards Washington. The church where Dr. King preached at would hold a breakfast with the kids.
While he taught the civil rights movement in class, he said that he would give extra credit to anyone volunteers who can memorize and recite Dr. King\'s "I have a Dream" speech. I think he meant it for us to appreciate the power and beauty of the speech itself by memorizing it. During the part of the Sojourn when the kids stood on the steps of the Lincoln Monument and the speech was being played on a small boom box, he said that the kids would start crying. Regular tourists would stop and cry as well.
http://www.sojournproject.org/index.html
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Originally posted by CHIZZY
I do think it\'s a shame that a lot of black people only remember him and his teachings one day a year...
What makes you think people only remember him once a year?
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Extra credit for memorization? Teachers like that should be lined up and taught WHY MEMORIZATION DOESNT DESERVE EXTRA CREDIT. I mean, its memorizatoin! Sure, its an important speech thingy magig, but u don\'t understand it any better if you memorised it. Memorization doesn\'t deserve extra credit. A good essay, maybe, but not bloody memorization.
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Howdo you know that memorization doesn\'t make you understand something better? Have you tried it? I was about to take him up on that offer, just because it would be a challenge; I could give a damn if extra credit was involved. I memorized the famous speech by Marc Anthony in Shakespeare\'s play ("Friends, Romans, countrymen; lend me your ears") and I understand it a little more each time I recite it. So blah! =P
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This man deserves credit for what he contributed to our country.
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I actually said that whole speech during an oral presentation in the 11th grade. I downloaded the speech from Napster and tried my best to copy what he did. Boy, did I suck. :p
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It\'s too bad that he died because honestly, hate to say this, the black leaders that have come upon us today really don\'t deserve to be spoken in the same breath, I just wish someone of his nature would come along again rather then Jesse Jackson or Sharpton who do nothing, but gripe and get done up the ass by politics.
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Originally posted by mjps21983
It\'s too bad that he died because honestly, hate to say this, the black leaders that have come upon us today really don\'t deserve to be spoken in the same breath, I just wish someone of his nature would come along again rather then Jesse Jackson or Sharpton who do nothing, but gripe and get done up the ass by politics.
Sharpton is running for President ;)
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Jeez, maybe I could get in there too, free money to all black people for there ancestors being slaves, what a crock of bullshit that lawsuit is, even if it does go to an education fund, it should not only go to black people, but to everyone. Why is it when something is done wrong to somebody\'s past or ancestors they feel someone has to pay up for it??? Shit happens!
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The jews got money not from germany, but from the US for the holocost. Either all that were wronged get money or none.
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Originally posted by luckee
The jews got money not from germany, but from the US for the holocost. Either all that were wronged get money or none.
Nope, Germany did pay and is still paying reparations.
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/reparations.html
Also, if you read it, they are paying surviviors directly.
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I could have sworn I read somewhere that the US was paying reps. as well. Otwell, I stand corrected. *shrugs*
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No big deal... I think the US gave aid, but not "reps" so to speak. I think its really interesting that it was brought up though. As I pointed out "survivors" are being paid directly, given there are no surviving ex "slaves" in the US - this could be a precident.
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Thats also not a fair comparo since that wasnt so long ago compared to slavery. If someone would have mentioned that 60 years slavery was abolished, they would have been hung themselves.
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Well, I think reparations concerning slavery are a joke. My family never owned slaves (as a majority of most white American families) and quite to the contrary ran part of the Underground Railroad in New Hampshire to help get runaway slaves into Canada.
What about the families who lost relatives fighting in the Civil War for the Union? Didn\'t they pay the ultimate price? All reparations will do is cause a further divide between the races here in the US.
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thats why Im in the all or none boat. If the blacks get it, the natives should get it as well as relatives of civil war casualties. We all know the gov. isnt gonna shell all of that money out, so I guess none should get it.
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I really dont know anyone that I could consider "great" in our time. What made Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. great was the fact that he had his hierarchy of needs backwards to most everyone else. IE, if he and another man were starving and MLK had a loaf of bread, he would have to give it to the other starving man before he cold eat it himself. Putting others before you makes you great. Not being able to give a great speach. That just makes you full of shit.