08/23/2004 - 9:01 PM

This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed to 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; a check that 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 security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is not time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy.

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 lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

Now is the time to make justice a reality to all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of it's colored citizens. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
----------

Amazing, isn't it? This speech was given 41 years ago this week, and the relevance and the impact of these words will never be diminished.

Go ahead...replace "Negros" with "LGBT". Change "people of color" to "people of different orientations". Just delete the word "racial", and then read the text again. Sound familiar? Does it sound like something that might resonate strongly in your life, because it sure does in mine. No matter what the folks who wish we'd "play it safe" think, no one is going to just give people like myself equality without a reason. And how can you help someone you can't see, that lives in the shadows and lurks around under the cover of darkness? Does that seem like a person worthy of equality? Would a movement like that impress you enough to take action? Could you find yourself speaking out for someone that could speak for his or her self, but won't?

Me either.
----------

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to climb up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father's died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi and every mountainside.

And when this happens, when we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement 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 spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
----------

I have a dream, folks. And the older I get, the more I attempt to put dream into action. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I stumble, and sometimes I crawl back under my cloak of anonymity and hope that no one attempts to pull me out of my comfort zone.

And then I see the potential life ahead of me. A life not spent alone, ostracized from society, sneaking into shaded doorways and attending meetings behind closed doors, but living in the light of day, the light of truth, and, most importantly, the light of my partner, my lover, my friend, my compliment, my match.

I have a dream.

What I'm Listening To: House of Soul CD Compilation

First Word That Comes To Mind: Freed

What I'm Currently Reading: