Sunday, January 20, 2013

I Have a Dream - MLK and Green





Tomorrow we celebrate the birthday of a very fine American as a national holiday.  Martin Luther King Junior was born on January 15, 1929.  His given name was Michael Luther King Jr. and he changed Michael to Martin.  He also simply changed the world by the speeches, actions, and deeds he gave us all in his short life.

The conservatives are claiming that MLK was a conservative hero.   The progressives have always claimed that MLK was a liberal.  It is very befitting that folks from both sides of the political spectrum claim MLK as a hero as he is and must continue to be a hero to all. 

If MLK was still alive he would be happy with the progress the country has made in race relations.  But I think he would be mighty sad about how the pretend do-gooders and their puppet government have used the green calling to screw the poor and middle class with high price renewable electricity and fuel.   He would be disgusted how we use 40% of our corn crop for ethanol and how this caused food shortages for many in Latin America and Africa.   He would be disgusted that the President has selected Hagel for defense secretary when Hagel was the loudest proponent of corn ethanol and the loudest opponent of the Kyoto Protocol when he was the Senator for the Cornhusker State.

He would be utterly dismayed that an ex Vice President of the USA is making a fortune promoting an inefficient, dirty and expensive power generation technology in the Bloom Box and that the Federal Government gives a 30% investment tax credit to the rich owners of the device so the poor and middle class can pay high prices for electricity under long term power purchase agreements their state governments have mandated.  Delaware even pretended the natural gas that powers the bloom box is a “renewable” fuel to meet renewable mandates.

He would be disgusted that the Secretary of Energy who won a Nobel Prize in low temperature physics could have blown billions on private companies that had Rube Goldberg technologies in the green-space simply because his boss told him to ignore science and assist the political bundlers who helped get the boss elected.  He would be disgusted that it costs a billion dollars to buy the presidency.

When MLK made his I have a dream speech on August 28, 1963 he could not have imagined that the US would amass 16 trillion dollars of debt over the next 50 years with much owed to the communist Chinese and still not be able to educate its children well nor provide basic services for its citizens.  He certainly knew that greedy people would manipulate the populace with propaganda.  But he could not have dreamed how far an ex Vice President of the USA would take this manipulation of the truth to the next level simply to pocket hundreds of millions of bucks.  Fifty years after the “I have a dream” speech America wake up and listen to your real heroes like MLK and discard fake prophets like Al Gore who simply profit from your misfortune. 

I too have a dream and it is that you all reflect on the words of MLK speech that are copied below.   He truly was a hero to all and the conservatives as well as the progressives should reclaim liberty for all and rid ourselves of disgusting opportunists who prey on all.


By The Rev. MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr.
Aug. 28, 1963

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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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 which 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 the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. 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 open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. 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. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
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Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, 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 with which I return to the South. 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 stand 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 a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

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