The Doctor is IN!
MLKing, Jr. speaking
“The riches of freedom and the security of justice…judging others by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin”…Yes, I believe in these, and the indomitable spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we celebrate today.
It was 1985 when I first heard this speech. I borrowed a scratchy record album from the City Library in Lincoln, NE and played it in my dorm room and caught the speech’s fire. Listen again to this gorgeous address, rich with American images and biblical references, and see if you don’t feel that surge of hope when MLK raises his voice in conclusion: “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last!”
Twenty-five years later, and I’ve heard the word racism more this past year than in any single one of my years. The beloved Martin Luther King Junior had a dream, like so many of us have our dreams; but what what made his dream “go viral,” as we say today, was it’s enormity, given the times; and his refusal to suppress it. Would that he were alive today!
One of the readings at church today came from Isaiah 62: 1. “For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her victory like a burning torch.” Sitting there on this holiday weekend listening to that passage, I was struck by how close in spirit they are to MLK’s famous speech.
So here’s to dreams, especially the ones that seem overly optimistic. The big ones are the only ones fit to proclaim from mountaintops…
So dream big — and dream out loud.
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