I Have a Dream
I’ve been sitting here reading about megaprojects and installing a virtual machine on my computer so I can run Acrobat Professional. Solomon Burke’s I Have a Dream came on. I was immediately reminded of the upcoming holiday and subsequent inauguration as well as Peter Marcuse’s insistence that the general principles espoused by MLK in the speech are exactly the sort of generalized, non-specific guidelines we should adopt in guiding planning. So I just watched the full speech (17 min, text here and here). It is, of course, absolutely amazing.
Aside from the stylistic repetition and dynamics of his speech, I was particularly struck by this highly contemporary excerpt:
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 directly reminded of Funkadelic’s Can You Get to That from Maggot Brain, which employs the same metaphor for relationships. [Anyone have other examples of this metaphor?] But then I realized that MLK was understating the case and that it applies to all of us today. America has defaulted on its promissory note for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. America has defaulted not only on black people. America has defaulted on all its citizens. Or at least its political and business leaders have. But surely, if this great nation can afford trillions of dollars to bail out its banks and businesses, surely it can also find sufficient funds for justice, sufficient funds for brotherly and sisterly love. Surely the dream this nation should be can find the funds to feed and house all of its people. And surely we can dream along with MLK that the people of America will someday judge men and women by the strength of their character rather than the color of their skin or the size of their wallet.
I know many people who are going to Washington D.C. to be part of the incredible celebration of a man of seeming character and dark skin taking charge of the American Dream. To adapt MLK’s quote from above, I can only hope that you all will not remain unmindful that”You are going to that 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 or complacency in momentary success. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of 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 injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.”
Wish I could be there.
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