January 15, 2007
A different version of the Dream
From Martin Luther King Jr.’s March 31, 1968, sermon at the National Cathedral (the last Sunday sermon he would preach):
There can be no gainsaying of the fact that a great revolution is taking place in the world today. In a sense it is a triple revolution: that is a technological revolution, with the impact of automation and cybernation; then there is a revolution in weaponry, with the emergence of atomic and nuclear weapons of warfare. Then there is a human rights revolution, with the freedom explosion that is taking place all over the world. Yes, we do live in a period where changes are taking place and there is still the voice crying through the vista of time saying, ‘Behold, I make all things new, former things are passed by’…
God grant that we will be participants in this newness and this magnificent development. If we will but do it, we will bring about a new day of justice and brotherhood and peace. And that day the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy. God bless you.”
Scott Horton comments (below the fold):
Dr King’s core message here is one Americans need to hear: it is the imperative of being engaged with the world, and upholding our deepest values in the process – resisting the impulses to isolationism which inevitably follow foreign policy reversals. We should all take time to remember today that America’s military misadventure in Indochina produced a region that has been the world’s most tenacious outpost for Communism. On the other hand, the example of Martin Luther King had profound consequences not only for America, but for the world. Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu tell us that the peaceful transformation of South Africa could not have occurred but for the precedent that Dr King provided. Vaclav Havel, Andrei Sakharov and other leaders in the struggle for democracy in the ruins of Communist Eurasia have all cited King and his message as vital inspirations. The truth is simple: Martin Luther King – the example of his life – did far more to bring an end to Communist oppression than all the bombs rained from B-52′s on North Vietnam. I say this not to detract from the legacy of Ronald Reagan, his masterful handling of the dynamics of Soviet Communism’s end phase, nor the importance of a strong military as a means of insuring peace and stability, but rather I cite it as proof of the vitality of the American idea, of which King must now be counted a prime expositor, in the world today.
[. . . . ]Truly there is a revolution afoot in the world today, but properly viewed it is not something for Americans to fear. Americans have ever been the revolutionaries, equipped with the tools to profoundly influence the world for the better. Those tools are ideas, a way of life and the best educational institutions on our planet. We only need to use them, but to do so with a measure of humility. In all of this Martin Luther King Jr. is a powerful example.
