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| Icon of MLK by Tobias Haller |
From Martin Luther King's speech at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, four days before he was assassinated nearly a half century ago. Reposted from eight years ago.
ON WAR:
Through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this
world a neighborhood and yet we have not had the ethical commitment to
make of it a brotherhood. But somehow, and in some way, we have got to
do this. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all
perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of
destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever
affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I
can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And
you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.
This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is
structured.
ON RACISM:
The hour has come for everybody, for all
institutions of the public sector and the private sector to work to get
rid of racism. And now if we are to do it we must honestly admit
certain things and get rid of certain myths that have constantly been
disseminated all over our nation.
One is the myth of time. It is the
notion that only time can solve the problem of racial injustice. And
there are those who often sincerely say to the Negro and his allies in
the white community, "Why don’t you slow up? Stop pushing things so
fast. Only time can solve the problem. And if you will just be nice and
patient and continue to pray, in a hundred or two hundred years the
problem will work itself out."
There is an answer to that myth. It is
that time is neutral. It can be used wither constructively or
destructively. And I am sorry to say this morning that I am absolutely
convinced that the forces of ill will in our nation, the extreme
rightists of our nation—the people on the wrong side—have used time much
more effectively than the forces of goodwill. And it may well be that
we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic
words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling
silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say,
"Wait on time."
ON POVERTY:
There is another thing closely related to racism that I would like to
mention as another challenge. We are challenged to rid our nation and
the world of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, poverty spreads its
nagging, prehensile tentacles into hamlets and villages all over our
world. Two-thirds of the people of the world go to bed hungry tonight.
They are ill-housed; they are ill-nourished; they are shabbily clad.
I’ve seen it in Latin America; I’ve seen it in Africa; I’ve seen this
poverty in Asia.
....
Not only do we see poverty abroad, I would remind you that in our own
nation there are about forty million people who are poverty-stricken. I
have seen them here and there. I have seen them in the ghettos of the
North; I have seen them in the rural areas of the South; I have seen
them in Appalachia. I have just been in the process of touring many
areas of our country and I must confess that in some situations I have
literally found myself crying.
....
And this can happen to America, the
richest nation in the world—and nothing’s wrong with that—this is
America’s opportunity to help bridge the gulf between the haves and the
have-nots. The question is whether America will do it. There is nothing
new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques and
the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we
have the will.
In a few weeks some of us are coming to
Washington to see if the will is still alive or if it is alive in this
nation. We are coming to Washington in a Poor People’s Campaign. Yes, we
are going to bring the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. We are
going to bring those who have known long years of hurt and neglect. We
are going to bring those who have come to feel that life is a long and
desolate corridor with no exit signs. We are going to bring children and
adults and old people, people who have never seen a doctor or a dentist
in their lives.
....
Let me close by saying that we have difficult days ahead in the struggle
for justice and peace, but I will not yield to a politic of despair.
I’m going to maintain hope as we come to Washington in this campaign.
The cards are stacked against us. This time we will really confront a
Goliath. God grant that we will be that David of truth set out against
the Goliath of injustice, the Goliath of neglect, the Goliath of
refusing to deal with the problems, and go on with the determination to
make America the truly great America that it is called to be.
Amen.
Icon by Tobias Haller.
Text of the speech from Stanford University.
