We must shift from our orientation toward gaining things to concentrate on people, continued the reverend, quoting her father; our survival depends on our ability to remain alert, to struggle and to pray to avoid fatigue, so that we can arrive at that height MLK famously labeled with lines from a hymn: "Free at last, free at last; thank God that we are free at last," in the "I Have a Dream" speech.
It took another King family member, Martin Luther King III, to bring in the present Occupations in DC, New York City, and throughout the country and the world: we are seeking justice for workers, the middle class, senior citizens, and students entrapped in enormous college debt.
"We've lost our souls." This country's biggest industry is its prisons, where the predominant population is black or brown, in higher numbers than those races among this country's institutions of higher education.
None of us can be free until all of us are; now is the time to stand up for all humankind. "It may get worse before it gets better."
A large monarch butterfly flew about the audience throughout the morning. I hoped it was a good omen, as it seemed to be.
Veteran newscaster Dan Rather spoke next, having covered the civil rights marches and abuses at the beginning of his long and eventful career. He deplored the dearth of media coverage back then; his bosses in Atlanta, CBS, did not choose to cover the events of 1962. Today the media are colluding with special interests, he continued.
The weight King carried was heavier than the colossal statue of him here.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, who marched beside MLK in the 1960s, recalled that Congressman John Conyers began planning this memorial three days after King's death. It would be situated within 132 miles of the Jamestown, VA, settlement where slavery in what would become this country has its roots.
MLK's last plans concerned occupying the District, he said. The government must attend to poverty; racial justice by itself is insufficient [if such a contradictory arrangement is actually possible]. We are a nation in pain, a sinking ship.
We must remain nonviolent. Jackson ended with a quote from the biblical book of Job: "Thought you slay me, yet I get up again with faith in God."
Said Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), one man accomplished what no president could--to teach us to let go of hatred and to eliminate the Jim Crow segregation that required separate public facilities for blacks and whites.
Now we are changed, a better nation, and the world is a different place. Obama's election is a downpayment; we're not there yet, still needing to "create a more perfect union."
Economics is the new dictator of this country, said Ambassador Andrew Young. When the savings and loan companies went out of business in the late twentieth century, the banks took over lending, something they knew nothing about. Moreover, the Republicans eliminated the boundary line between commercial banks and investment banks.
He compared the thriving economy of Atlanta with the rest of the nation, describing a job-friendly environment; mayors in that peachtree city have been black for the last forty years. We must end poverty with literacy, studying economics and winning the battle over voting rights.
Rev. Joseph Lowery, third president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, quoted from MLK's Nobel prize acceptance speech: "I accept, with abiding faith in America and audacious faith in mankind. He refused to bellieve that daybreak could not shine in this country and dare believe in the rights of all to education and food, dignity and equality.
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