"I Have a Dream" Litany

For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

[1-14-05]

One:    In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "I have a dream... 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."

ALL:    We have a dream that all children will live in a world where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, gender, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation but by the content of their character.

One:     "I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama ... 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."

ALL:      We have a dream that one day little Protestant boys and girls will be able to join hands with little Catholic boys and girls in Northern Ireland; that little Jewish boys and girls and little Palestinian boys and girls will be able to join hands in the Holy Land; that little Christian boys and girls will be able to join hands with little Muslim boys and girls everywhere and walk together as sisters and brothers.

One:       "I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream... (that one day) 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 (parents) died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'"

ALL:      Let freedom ring from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem!

One:      "Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!"

ALL:        Let freedom ring from the Antrim Coast cliffs of Northern Ireland!

One:       "Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!"

ALL:       Let freedom ring from the sandhills of the Sudan!

One:      "Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring."

ALL:       "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!'"

(V. Moss, adapted from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington speech)

Dear Editor:

Ten years ago Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon wrote "The Martin Luther King you Don’t See" on TV. It is significant that while we are usually only exposed to perfunctory network news we are totally missing the last years of his life. What we hear and read about is his battle for desegregation in Birmingham (1963); reciting his dream of racial harmony at the rally in Washington (1963); marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965); and finally lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (1968).

What happened in the years from 1965 to 1968 when he was speaking and organizing as diligently as ever? Most of those speeches were filmed or taped, but why are they not shown today?

In the early 1960s, when Dr. King focused his challenge on legalized racial discrimination in the South, most major media were his allies. But after the passage of civil rights acts in 1964 and 1965, King began challenging the nation’s fundamental priorities. He maintained that civil rights laws were empty without "human rights" –including economic rights. King said anti-discrimination laws were hollow for people too poor to eat at a restaurant or afford a decent home.

So why do we not hear about his Beyond Vietnam speech in 1967 when King called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today?"  Why do we still not hear that the U.S. "was on the wrong side of a world revolution?" He questioned the U.S. suppression of instead of the supporting for revolutions "of the shirtless and barefoot people" in the Third World. In foreign policy, King offered an economic critique, complaining about "capitalists of the West investing in the Third World only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of those countries."

Well the media did know about King’s activities but Time, The Washington Post and others denounced his initiatives including his organizing of the Poor People’s Campaign to get Congress to enact a poor people’s bill of rights. He saw the need to confront Congress’ hostility to the poor while generously funding the military.

How familiar that sounds today with most mass media, Congress and the White House still accepting the perpetuation of poverty.

Dwight Lawton