From Dreams to Reality -- From Martin to Barack

Today we stop to pay homage to a man deemed a prophet by many, though time has worn off the rough edges of a very difficult history. In 1963 Martin Luther King delivered a speech in Washington remembered for a dream declared. But the speech really wasn't about a dream, it was about a promise enshrined in the Declaration of Independence that had yet to be fulfilled.

He declared that day:

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, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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, a 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 make real the promises of democracy. 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 lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.


He spoke of urgency, of bringing this promise to fruition. Gradualism would not work.


Ed Blum, author of an excellent book on W.E.B. DuBois, compares Dr. King and Barack Obama, noting that four years after King delivered this speech, many in the Black community felt that his commitment to nonviolence and love of enemy had done little to further their cause. This was coupled with white flight. The dream was not nearing reality.

Blum notes the expectations placed on Barack Obama. People voted for change and they want change now. Could Obama's reputation, his promise, be in tatters 4 years hence, even as King's was four years later?

How do we prevent this from happening. Blum suggests we listen to DuBois, and wake up.

The potential for dashed dreams and unfulfilled prophecies is high. How shall we avoid disappointment? How can we not get stuck in a nightmare of a dream? If “Yes We Can” sounds as distant in 2012 as “I Have a Dream” did in 1967, where will we turn for help? Perhaps we should turn to the words of another American prophet, W. E. B. Du Bois, and link them to the vision of King. Du Bois, who died only a day before King’s epic speech, called Americans not to dream, but to wake up. “Awake, awake” he implored Americans as the prophet Isaiah had for the Israelites. Seeing the “day of reckoning” at hand, Du Bois charged Americans to “put on thy strength.” King and Du Bois knew – and President-elect Obama knows—that faith takes works, hope demands honesty, and love needs justice.

With Obama’s election, I hope that we awake from our dreaming and create the America King lived and died for.

It is, truly, time to wake up. We must move from dreaming to bringing dreams into reality. Hopefully tomorrow is another step along the way, but we must be aware of the pitfalls and work to overcome them.


Comments

Anonymous said…
Please forgive the dumb question, but what exactly are we saying "yes we can" to? I think if you poll the crowd in DC, the far ranging answers may shock us. MLK had a clear, defined goal that was hard, large, but to a degree measurable. Sort of like if we all said.. lets make the world a better place. We all agree its a good goal, but how is success defined? Do we default to the cliche of "just one life improved"?

I am not sure how we really measure success four years from now. Is it Bush arrested, an openly gay military, maybe its my house value going up? You see the crowd (or mob) are the ones doing the defining. It feels like a recipe for disappointment, but I pray I am wrong.

-Chuck

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