Fifty years ago on August 28, 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed 250,000 people who gathered at the nation’s capital for the March for Jobs and Freedom. Most people knew about the segment of the speech with the refrain: I have a dream . . .
My associate Ray Hess used the following lessor known excerpt of the speech to begin our leadership training institute last week in North Bend, Washington State.
In a sense we’ve 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 the promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this solemn obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has been 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 the nation. And so we’ve come to cash the 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 quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
Here is a question for reflection and dialogue: To create a sustainable community today, what “check” do we need to cash?
Reflection Questions for Proper 17 (Year C) Jeremiah 2:4-13 Psalm 81:1, 10-16 Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 Luke 14:1, 7-14 |
Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org