My car, for example, is definitely not new anymore, passing several milestones this past year. But, it's hanging in there pretty well. The only major expense in 2007 was replacing the tires, which were the original tires on the car.
On the other hand, with several of us turning 26 this year, that just feels old. 25 was a major psychological marker for me. But happy birthday Kelli, Andrew, Scott, Jodi, etc, etc! And no Jodi, we will not tell you what we are doing for your birthday this Saturday.
The birthday we observe today (which, of course, is not his actual birthday) has some of both. Everybody embraces the safer parts of King's message. The media and political candidates all have a dream. And it really is pretty amazing how successful they were at radically changing our society.
Yet for all the talk about MLK, it also feels pretty sanitized. It's been cleaned up. The parts that don't age well in our materialistic, militaristic society get relegated to that dustbin of history politicians like to assign to uncomfortable truths.
By the mid 1960s, King was speaking very strongly about the relationships of racism and poverty and war. He made poverty an important issue, he supported labor rights, he opposed the Vietnam War in increasingly impassioned ways. Certainly not everyone agrees with his views by 1967 or 1968, then or now. What's so interesting, or concerning, is that we have a media and political process that can so loudly embrace the less controversial parts of the King identity while virtually ignoring the rest.
So here are a few of my favorite lesser well known quotes not from I Have a Dream, along with links to three speeches. The greatest disservice we can do his memory is ignoring the tight linkage he made between racial equality, economic justice, and opposition to war. As King described it in his Nobel speech, "each of these problems, while appearing to be separate and isolated, is inextricably bound to the other. I refer to racial injustice, poverty, and war."
Nobel speech
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
I've Been to the Mountaintop
Optimism:
"Let me close by saying that I have the personal faith that mankind will somehow rise up to the occasion and give new directions to an age drifting rapidly to its doom. In spite of the tensions and uncertainties of this period something profoundly meaningful is taking place. Old systems of exploitation and oppression are passing away, and out of the womb of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born."
"If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
"But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars."
"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!"
Politics and Labor:
"The voters of our nation rendered a telling blow to the radical right. They defeated those elements in our society which seek to pit white against Negro and lead the nation down a dangerous Fascist path."
“Those who in the second half of the 19th century could not tolerate organized labor have had a rebirth of power and seek to regain the despotism of that era while retaining the wealth and privileges of the 20th century. Their target is labor, liberals and the Negro people.”
"The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers."
"That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" The question is, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That's the question."
Poverty:
"So it is obvious that if man is to redeem his spiritual and moral "lag", he must go all out to bridge the social and economic gulf between the "haves" and the "have nots" of the world. Poverty is one of the most urgent items on the agenda of modern life."
"There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it."
"In the final analysis, the rich must not ignore the poor because both rich and poor are tied in a single garment of destiny. All life is interrelated, and all men are interdependent."
Urgency:
"We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late."
"Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today."
War and Peace:
"Recent events have vividly reminded us that nations are not reducing but rather increasing their arsenals of weapons of mass destruction."
"In a day when vehicles hurtle through outer space and guided ballistic missiles carve highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can claim victory in war. A so-called limited war will leave little more than a calamitous legacy of human suffering, political turmoil, and spiritual disillusionment."
"Equality with whites will hardly solve the problems of either whites or Negroes if it means equality in a society under the spell of terror and a world doomed to extinction."
"It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace."
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."
"Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours."
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