If you don’t tear up a little when listening to this, you are not human.
Incredible. It never loses its inspiration, does it?
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If you don’t tear up a little when listening to this, you are not human.
Incredible. It never loses its inspiration, does it?
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gypsy howell
And if you spend the next 40+ years doing everything in your power to make sure King’s dream doesn’t come true, you must be a Republican!
snark aside, thanks for playing this. One of the greatest speeches in American history. Maybe one of the greatest speeches in all history.
gypsy howell
I should have said ‘SNIDE comment aside’. “Snark’ might suggest I didn’t mean it.
Michael D.
Couldn’t agree more.
montysano
I live in north Alabama, and last year my family and I went to Selma for the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights March. In an age where true progressivism is either ignored or sneered at, it was a true revelation to be among people for whom it is a real, ongoing process.
We got to see a former president, potential presidents, and real American heroes. We got to hear Rev. Joseph Lowery speak, which sent a jolt of electricity through the crowd (Obama had to follow him, poor bastard).
Every year in March they walk across that bridge. We plan to go back. Highly recommended for anyone in the neighborhood.
cbear
Tear up? No, I don’t tear up.
I cry. A lot.
cbear
Thank you for posting that today Michael.
Michael D.
You’re welcome. But you know something? That’s the first time I’ve ever heard the WHOLE speech. I always heard the truncated version. And this time, I really did get sentimental about it all. I was reading the other day (for the first time) about MLKs assassination. I don’t understand how people act. I just don’t.
montysano
And this one, too.
Wow, Michael; this is painful, powerful stuff. Thanks.
Michael D.
You realize how far we’ve come. But at the same time, you realize how far we have to go. By the way, I don’t find it painful. I find it uplifting. I loved hearing this speech in its entirety.
Tara the anti-social social worker
It’s astonishing to remember how much hate was directed at him while he was alive. Racist derision, crazy accusations (just imagine if they’d had chain emails back then). All those petty haters are forgotten by history, while King is remembered as the best that America can be.
Brachiator
I kinda like King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jai.” It is a stirring reminder of how far we have come, and still resonates with respect to obstacles that we currently face. It is also interesting to note that it is primarily a rebuke to moderates and supposed allies, not just outright racists. It challenged people to get beyond their comfort zones. A few tidbits:
[Hmm. Isn’t there always someone claiming that somebody “is not ready?”]
[Hmm. Compare Huckabee recently, “You don’t like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag,”]
[Hmm. It’s not just about a president doing the right thing from Day One.]
[Hmm. This could also be applied to some current issues, such as gay rights. Neither oppression nor the call to justice can be ghetto-ized, or limited by history or circumstance]
The full letter here:
LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL
Jake
I’ll tell you what will make me tear up: If I hear George Wanker Bush mumbling and mispronouncing his way through some half-assed platitudes about Dr. King. Watching Al Sharpton and the rest of the parade of poseurs trying to fill his shoes just makes me throw up a little.
Thanks for posting the entire speech, I know a lot of people haven’t heard the whole thing. And yeah, read the Letter from Birmingham Jail. This version seems to be more complete/have fewer typos.
Zuzu
Absolutely electrifying.
carol h
Sure, it makes you tear up, unless you’re a republican. I was a teen ager when Dr. gave his speach and he was no hero in my republican house. To my parents he was an object of derision, not admiration. My dad saw him in an airport once and instead of being excited was repelled. Fortunately when I went to college I listened to other points of view became the liberal I am today. My dad at age 86 is still a racist republican. He is a relic of this country’s bitter racial history.
Cain
One thing I thought was that there was a nobility in the movement in those days it seems like to me. Although I wasn’t alive then, but I used to eat up the books about it. Black leadership just doesn’t seem to measure up. They have leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who can’t touch King.
Sometimes I wonder what went wrong? What happened to that nobility that I perceived?
cain
horatius
That describes Nancy, Harry and the rest of the spineless democrats to a T. It’s just that a sand-negro’s life is worth so much less than a negro’s. If we had an MLK in this day and age, the Iraq war would never have happened.
YellowJournalism
Too bad my elementary school bastardized this and trivialized it for me at a young age by making us play the xylophone in time to a sung version of the line “I have a dream.” We hit one note for every word, then hit a really high note immediately after, singing “Martin Luther King!” really fast. It didn’t help that I couldn’t stand the woman who taught the music class. She was one of those people who thought highly of her own voice and that the louder she sang, the better she sounded. One of the saddest sights in the world is watching a 50+ woman try to drown out a class of second graders by singing MLK’s name at the top of her lungs.
Great, now I have that tune in my head.