"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
Dominee Martin Luther King
Dominee Martin Luther King
Bron: Brief vanuit Birmingham Jail, 16 april 1963
Posts tonen met het label Martin Luther King. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label Martin Luther King. Alle posts tonen
woensdag 7 oktober 2015
Citaat van de week
We weten door pijnlijke ervaring dat vrijheid nooit vrijwillig wordt opgegeven door de onderdrukker, ze moet worden geëist door de onderdrukten.
woensdag 22 januari 2014
The Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day in the US; the TV and other media were full of stories about King and his times, and what it all means today. He has been compared to Gandhi and Mandela, become an icon for American "progressives," and, of course, a historical symbol of the nonviolent civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. He won the Nobel Peace Prize, almost every major American city has a thoroughfare named for him, and, as noted, we have a national holiday in his honor--making him and Columbus the only ones to have such holidays. He was, of course, gunned down in 1968, at the age of thirty-nine; the civil rights movement he created passed to, frankly, less capable and less visionary successors, who undermined his legacy and his goal of a color-blind nation.
Before going on, let me give my answer to this question: Was he a great man? He showed great courage, commitment to his cause, insistence on nonviolence, strong political and leadership skills, patriotism, and became a highly eloquent spokesman for civil rights. "I Have a Dream" is one of the great speeches in the English language. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" likewise more than equals any Thoreau or Gandhi writings, and is not something that today's civil rights leaders, such as they are, could match, nor for that matter could the typical graduate of almost any university in the world today. (The letter's pacing, erudition, and the surgical preciseness with which it takes down opposing arguments remind me of that in General Sherman's letter to the Mayor of Atlanta.) King's life made a difference. He was a great man.
Read more at: The Diplomad 2.0
Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day in the US; the TV and other media were full of stories about King and his times, and what it all means today. He has been compared to Gandhi and Mandela, become an icon for American "progressives," and, of course, a historical symbol of the nonviolent civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. He won the Nobel Peace Prize, almost every major American city has a thoroughfare named for him, and, as noted, we have a national holiday in his honor--making him and Columbus the only ones to have such holidays. He was, of course, gunned down in 1968, at the age of thirty-nine; the civil rights movement he created passed to, frankly, less capable and less visionary successors, who undermined his legacy and his goal of a color-blind nation.
Before going on, let me give my answer to this question: Was he a great man? He showed great courage, commitment to his cause, insistence on nonviolence, strong political and leadership skills, patriotism, and became a highly eloquent spokesman for civil rights. "I Have a Dream" is one of the great speeches in the English language. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" likewise more than equals any Thoreau or Gandhi writings, and is not something that today's civil rights leaders, such as they are, could match, nor for that matter could the typical graduate of almost any university in the world today. (The letter's pacing, erudition, and the surgical preciseness with which it takes down opposing arguments remind me of that in General Sherman's letter to the Mayor of Atlanta.) King's life made a difference. He was a great man.
Read more at: The Diplomad 2.0
maandag 18 januari 2010
The Content of Obama's Character
By Christopher ChantrillOn the holiday celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday we celebrate also the first year of America's first black president, Barack Obama.
It's telling that 47 years ago, when Reverend King made his great speech on the Washington Mall, he did not say that he had a dream that one day, an African American would become president. King's vision on August 28, 1963 was less ambitious:
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.
Even so, Barack Obama was elected president based on the color of his skin. African Americans on the night of November 4, 2008 wept with joy because one of their own had become president, against all that they had been told and feared about a racist America. Liberals rejoiced because of the "first," that America had answered the question: Was it ready for a black president?
American Thinker
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