seizeacure
09-06-2008, 12:31 AM
Thought I'd share my version of Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech since last week was it's 45th anniversary. Comments please!
:o
7 score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous degree came as a great beacon of light, of hope, to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But the great Emancipator, himself, was enslaved within his own body and never set free. His masters were his own mind and the society in which he lived. One hundred and forty years later the people of color have seen a great lightening of the manacles of segregation and chains of discrimination. Equal housing, non-discrimination in the work place, church and classroom have all made great strides in freeing the people of color. The fact that the Democratic nominee for president, Barach Obama is a person of color is the closest hint we’ve seen that the shackles are falling completely off. While people of color, children and women still live in poverty much more often then others, the largest percentage of homeless and destitute are people of any race or sex who live manacled by mental illness. One hundred and forty years later, the mentally ill live on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a great ocean of material prosperity. One hundred and forty years later, the mentally ill are still languishing in the corners of American society. She finds herself an exile in her own land. So I have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense we have come to both the public and private sectors of this great nation to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the constitution and 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 and women, yes even mentally ill men and women, would be guaranteed the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on the promissory note insofar as her mentally ill citizens are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the mentally ill a bad check, stamped insufficient funds. Neither private or government insurance plans cover the needs of the mentally ill to the extent that they cover other medical conditions. Thousands of mentally ill Citizens illegally and immorally lose their jobs and/or their insurance coverage in blatant cases of discrimination. 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 of justice. We have We have come to this spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of NOW. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling of 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 exclusion to the sunlit path of justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the mentally ill’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom, treatment and equality. Two thousand eight is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope the mentally ill needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if this nation returns to business as usual. As the shelters, hospitals, soup kitchens, streets, jails and missions fill with the mentally ill there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the mentally ill are given their citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something I must say to my people, the mentally ill, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for equality by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. To the best of our ability we must control the violent feelings that are locked in our troubled brain. We must be at peace with ourselves so that we can be at peace with others. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical and emotional abuse with soul force. The marvelous organizations that have arisen to support and unite the mentally ill must not lead us to a distrust of the mentally healthy, for many of our healthy brothers and sisters, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom and health are inextricably bound to our freedom and health. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of mental health parity, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the mentally ill are the victims of unspeakable horrors of a society who sees the medically ill as animals that must be caged or medicated into nothingness in “mental hospitals” that are little more than prison cells for those who have committed no crimes. We cannot be satisfied until the mentally ill are welcome in the schools, workplaces, and churches. We cannot be satisfied till the need for the medical and psychological needs of the mentally ill are paid for by our government and the private sector. The percentage of mentally ill, people of color, males, and females in our jails and prisons should be matched with their percentage in the community. No, no we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulation. Some of you have come straight from narrow jail cells, Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and commitment to mental institutions. Others have homeless shelters as their only home. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to your Dr.. Go back to your congressmen, go back to society as a whole, go back to the ghettos and slums. Go back to Mississippi, Go back to Illinois, Go back to New York, Go back to California, Go back to Missouri, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the rolling plains of Illinois the mentally ill and those with other illnesses will sit together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that my four little grandchildren will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by their illness but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be laid straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh will see it together.
This is our hope, This is the faith that I go back to America with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, pray together, to learn together, to struggle together, to stand up for freedom together. Knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountain side, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that let freedom ring from the sacred institutions of Washington DC. Let freedom ring from the prairies of Illinois, Let freedom ring from Lookout mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God’s children, ill men and healthy men, black and white, 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, Free at last!”
:o
7 score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous degree came as a great beacon of light, of hope, to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But the great Emancipator, himself, was enslaved within his own body and never set free. His masters were his own mind and the society in which he lived. One hundred and forty years later the people of color have seen a great lightening of the manacles of segregation and chains of discrimination. Equal housing, non-discrimination in the work place, church and classroom have all made great strides in freeing the people of color. The fact that the Democratic nominee for president, Barach Obama is a person of color is the closest hint we’ve seen that the shackles are falling completely off. While people of color, children and women still live in poverty much more often then others, the largest percentage of homeless and destitute are people of any race or sex who live manacled by mental illness. One hundred and forty years later, the mentally ill live on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a great ocean of material prosperity. One hundred and forty years later, the mentally ill are still languishing in the corners of American society. She finds herself an exile in her own land. So I have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense we have come to both the public and private sectors of this great nation to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the constitution and 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 and women, yes even mentally ill men and women, would be guaranteed the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on the promissory note insofar as her mentally ill citizens are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the mentally ill a bad check, stamped insufficient funds. Neither private or government insurance plans cover the needs of the mentally ill to the extent that they cover other medical conditions. Thousands of mentally ill Citizens illegally and immorally lose their jobs and/or their insurance coverage in blatant cases of discrimination. 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 of justice. We have We have come to this spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of NOW. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling of 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 exclusion to the sunlit path of justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the mentally ill’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom, treatment and equality. Two thousand eight is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope the mentally ill needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if this nation returns to business as usual. As the shelters, hospitals, soup kitchens, streets, jails and missions fill with the mentally ill there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the mentally ill are given their citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something I must say to my people, the mentally ill, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for equality by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. To the best of our ability we must control the violent feelings that are locked in our troubled brain. We must be at peace with ourselves so that we can be at peace with others. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical and emotional abuse with soul force. The marvelous organizations that have arisen to support and unite the mentally ill must not lead us to a distrust of the mentally healthy, for many of our healthy brothers and sisters, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom and health are inextricably bound to our freedom and health. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of mental health parity, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the mentally ill are the victims of unspeakable horrors of a society who sees the medically ill as animals that must be caged or medicated into nothingness in “mental hospitals” that are little more than prison cells for those who have committed no crimes. We cannot be satisfied until the mentally ill are welcome in the schools, workplaces, and churches. We cannot be satisfied till the need for the medical and psychological needs of the mentally ill are paid for by our government and the private sector. The percentage of mentally ill, people of color, males, and females in our jails and prisons should be matched with their percentage in the community. No, no we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulation. Some of you have come straight from narrow jail cells, Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and commitment to mental institutions. Others have homeless shelters as their only home. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to your Dr.. Go back to your congressmen, go back to society as a whole, go back to the ghettos and slums. Go back to Mississippi, Go back to Illinois, Go back to New York, Go back to California, Go back to Missouri, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the rolling plains of Illinois the mentally ill and those with other illnesses will sit together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that my four little grandchildren will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by their illness but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be laid straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh will see it together.
This is our hope, This is the faith that I go back to America with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, pray together, to learn together, to struggle together, to stand up for freedom together. Knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountain side, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that let freedom ring from the sacred institutions of Washington DC. Let freedom ring from the prairies of Illinois, Let freedom ring from Lookout mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God’s children, ill men and healthy men, black and white, 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, Free at last!”