Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Some important figures in American culture, even though they produced a great body of work, are most recognized for a single outstanding accomplishment.
For instance, Duke Ellington’s “Take the ‘A’ Train,” or Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” or W.E.B. Du Bois’ “The Souls of Black Folk.”
So, too, has Martin Luther King Jr., whose life we celebrated Monday with a federal holiday, best remembered for the speech he gave during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.
In it are the oft-repeated lines that begin with “I have a dream … .”
The speech was one of the greatest pieces of oratory in American history — and one a nation still suffering under a fractured social structure would do well to read in its entirety and embrace today.
While there is much wisdom in the “I Have a Dream” speech, during his lifetime King expressed many more edifying thoughts. Here are some others that should not be forgotten:
• “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
— Letter from Birmingham City Jail, April 16, 1963
• “We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man.”
— “How Long, Not Long” speech, March 25, 1965
• “We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
— “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech, April 4, 1967
• “The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. That’s a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”
— “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, April 3, 1968
• “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. … I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”
— Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Dec. 10, 1964
• “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
— from “Strength to Love,” published in 1963
During these days rife with “fake news” and political hypocrisy from all quarters, it would do one well to remember King, a man who was the real thing and one willing to give all of himself to make the world a better place.
— Albuquerque Journal