Martin Luther King in his own words
“Man has the capacity to do right
as well as wrong, and his history is a path upward, not downward. The past is
strewn with the ruins of the empires of tyranny, and each is a monument not
merely to man’s blunders but to his capacity to overcome them
…
This is why I remain an optimist, though I am also
a realist, about the barriers before us. Why is the issue of equality still so
far from solution in America, a nation that professes itself to be democratic,
inventive, hospitable to new ideas, rich productive and awesomely
powerful?
The problem is so
tenacious because, despite its virtues and attributes, America is deeply racist
and its democracy is flawed both economically and socially … justice for
Black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our
society … exposing evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of
our society. It reveals systemic rather than superficial flaws and suggests that
radical reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced
…
It is time that we stopped
our blithe lip service to the guarantees of life, liberty and pursuit of
happiness. These fine sentiments are embodied in the Declaration of
Independence, but that document was always a declaration of intent rather than
of reality ... to this day, Black Americans have not life, liberty nor the
privilege of pursuing happiness, and millions of poor white Americans are in
economic bondage that is scarcely less
oppressive.”
–Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Posted: Tue - January 1, 2008 at 03:54 PM
