Dr. King's Nightmare

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968. He was 39 years old. On Monday, January 19, 2015 the United States of America will celebrate his birth with a national holiday. Dr. King is one of only two Americans whose birthdays are designated as national holidays. The only other American so honored is George Washington. Dr. King is also one of only five Americans that have major monuments in their honor on the National Mall. The others so honored are Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt. Dr. King is the only one that was not a President of the United States.

I was fifteen years old when Dr. King was killed. I remember how controversial he was during the time he lived. In Alabama where I grew up, many white people literally hated him, but in reality, I knew many Black people that resented him as well. Some disagreed with his tactics. Some felt that he created an atmosphere that made it more difficult for them to get a job or to keep the job they had. It was within this framework that my admiration for the man was born and continued to grow.

I was so impressed by his intelligence, as well as his eloquence. But more than anything else, I was moved by his courage. He had something that so few others have, the courage to say and do things that many others disagreed with, that may have put him in mortal danger, but to do those things because of an unshakeable belief that those things were morally right.

Many have reduced Dr. King’s life to the March on Washington and the iconic speech given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. But there were so many other speeches that were given before smaller audiences, but they were just as prophetic, illuminating, and inspiring. One of those were delivered In December, 1967 at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where Dr. King served as co-pastor with his father. Dr. King talked about the world being a single community, how the ends do not justify the means, peace, and how his “Dream” that had been so beautifully expressed just four years earlier, was now a nightmare.

Some of Dr. King’s words follows;

“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. Did you ever stop to think that you can’t leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that’s handed to you by a Pacific Islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that’s given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that’s poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that’s poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you’re desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that’s poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach for your toast, and that’s given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality….

There have always been those who argued that the end justifies the means, that the means really aren’t important. The important thing is to get to the end, you see. So, if you’re seeking to develop a just society, they say, the important thing is to get there, and the means aren’t really important; any means will do so long as you get there – they may be violent, they may be untruthful means, they even may be unjust means to a just end. There have been those that have argued this throughout history. But we will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut off from means, because the means represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process, and ultimately you can’t reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree….

The conquerors of old who came killing in pursuit of peace, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon, were akin in seeking a peaceful world order. If you will read Mein Kampf closely enough, you will discover that Hitler contended that everything he did in Germany was for peace…..

They are talking about peace as a distant goal, as an end we seek, but one day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. All of this is saying that, in the final analysis, means and ends must cohere because the end is preexistent in the means, and ultimately destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends…..

In 1963, on a sweltering August afternoon, we stood in Washington, D.C. and talked to the nation about many things. Toward the end of that afternoon, I tried to talk to the nation about a dream that I had had, and I must confess to you today that not long after talking about that dream I started seeing it turn into a nightmare. I remember the first time I saw that dream turn into a nightmare, just a few weeks after I had talked about it. It was when four beautiful, unoffending, innocent Negro girls were murdered in a church in Birmingham, Alabama. I watched that dream turn into a nightmare as I moved through the ghettos of the nation and saw my Black brothers and sisters perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of prosperity, and saw the nation doing nothing to grapple with the Negro’s problem of poverty. I saw that dream turn into a nightmare as I watched my Black brothers and sisters in the midst of anger and understandable outrage, in the midst of their hurt, in the midst of their disappointment, turn to misguided riots to try to solve that problem…..

I am personally the victim of deferred dreams, of blasted hopes, but in spite of that I close today by saying I still have a dream, because you know, you can’t give up in life. If you lose hope, somehow you lose that vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.

I have a dream that one day men will rise up and come to see that they are made to live together as brothers. I still have a dream this morning that one day every Negro in this country, every colored person in the world, will be judged on the basis of the content of his character rather than the color of his skin, and every man will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. I still have a dream that one day the idle industries of Appalachia will be revitalized, and the empty stomachs of Mississippi will be filled, and brotherhood will be more than a few words at the end of a prayer, but rather the first order of business on every legislative agenda. I still have a dream today that justice will roll down like water, and righteousness like a might stream. I still have a dream today that in all of our state houses and city halls men will be elected to go there and will do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with their God. I still have a dream today that one day war will come to an end, that men will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, that nations will no longer rise up against nations, neither will they study war any more. I still have a dream that the lamb and the lion will lie down together and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid. I still have a dream today that one day, every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill will be made low, the rough places will be made smooth and the crooked places straight, and the glory of the lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. I still have a dream that with this faith we will be able to adjourn the councils of despair and bring new light into the dark chambers of pessimism. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when there will be peace on earth and good will toward men. It will be a glorious day, the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy.”

We’re working on it Dr. King, we’re working on it.

Happy Birthday.