Martin Luther King, Jr. Speaks To Us Today

On December 18, 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

He came into town on the heels of a major snowstorm to address an audience of 2,000 that had gathered as part of a Conscience of America symposium.

Dr. King spoke four months after having given his famous "I Have a Dream" speech on the Washington Mall, and he had much to say that seems to directly address those of us living in the United States over five decades later.

In fact, considering the current state of political, racial, ethnic and religious antagonism that exists, you could say his 1963 speech was nothing short of prophetic.

"The wind of change is blowing all over our world today. It is sweeping away an old order and bringing into being a new order... The old order of colonialism is passing away, and the new order of freedom and human dignity is coming into being.,, With this new sense of dignity and this new sense of self-respect, a new Negro came into being, with the new determination to struggle, to suffer and sacrifice in order to be free."

Change never comes easy. And some of that difficulty lies with the majority order letting go of prejudice and privilege.

Dr. King went on to address the current state of world affairs.

"The world in which we live is geographically one. Now we are challenged to make it one in terms of brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools. This is the great challenge of the hour. This is true of individuals. It is true of nations. No individual can live alone. No nation can live alone."

After giving the example of a recent visit to India, where he found hundreds of millions of people without enough to eat, Dr. King said;

"I started to think about the fact that we spend millions of dollars a day to store surplus food. I said to myself, I know where we can store that food free of charge, the wrinkled stomachs of the millions of God's children that go to bed hungry at night. All I'm saying is simply this, that all life is interrelated. That somehow we're caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be."

Dr. King then directly addressed segregation.

"We are challenged to get rid of the notion, once and for all, that there are superior and inferior races...There was a time when people used to argue this notion on the basis of religion and the Bible. It is tragic how individuals will often use religion and the Bible to misuse religion and the Bible to crystalize a status quo and justify their prejudices."

Then he spoke about two myths that get in the way of social change.

"One argument is the myth of time. This myth says in substance that only time can solve problems that we face in the area of human relations. So there are those who say to individuals struggling to make justice a reality, Why don't you wait and stop pushing so hard? If you will just be patient and wait...the problem will work itself out... The only answer that one can give to this myth is that time is neutral. It can be used either constructively or destructively...Somewhere along the way we must see that time will never solve the problem alone but that we must help time. Somewhere we must see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God."

"The other myth,.. is that legislation cannot really solve the problem...while it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless."

At the time Dr. King was referring to civil rights legislation, which still needs to be safeguarded and monitored. Witness recent efforts to curtail voter registration among minorities in the south. 

His remarks are just as apropos in arguing against any suggestion that we need to limit immigration or deport members of various religious or ethnic groups.

And Dr. King spoke to the importance of love in non-violent resistance.

"The Greek language has a word, 'agape.' Agape is more than romantic or aesthetic love. Agape is more than friendship. Agape is creative, understanding, redemptive good will for all men. It is an overflowing love that seeks nothing in return. Theologians would say that this is the love of God operating in the human heart. When one rises to love on this level, he loves every man. He rises to the point of loving the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does. I believe that this is the kind of love that can carry us through this period of transition. This is what we've tried to teach through this nonviolent discipline."

As Dr. King came towards the conclusion of his speech, he remarked that modern psychology had given us the term 'maladjusted.'

"But I say to you my friends... there are certain things in our nation and in our world which I am proud to be maladjusted and which I hope all men of goodwill will be maladjusted  (to)... I say very honestly that I never intend to become adjusted to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism, to self-defeating effects of physical violence..."

And his final thought was a profound and powerful hope for the future of our world and our country,

"In spite of the difficulties of this hour, I am convinced that we have the resources to make the American Dream a reality... Somehow, with this faith (in God), we will be able to adjourn the councils of despair and bring new life into the dark chambers of pessimism. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. This will be a great day. This will be the day when all 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 Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God, Almighty, we are free at last!'"

Here's a transcript of the entire speech.

Photo Credit. www.seattletimes.com