[ [link removed] ]Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress




This Martin Luther King Day, we encourage you to read an excerpt from Dr.
King’s speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” below and reflect on the
many lessons shared by Dr. King that still ring true today.

On April 3, 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis to
support striking sanitation workers when he was asked at the last minute
to speak at the Mason Temple church because a crowd of a few thousand
people wanted to see him. It would be his final speech.

This is an excerpt. To read the full annotated version, [ [link removed] ]click here.

“Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world.
And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the
possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of
human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, “Martin Luther King,
which age would you like to live in?

[...]

Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, “If you allow me
to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be
happy.”

Now that’s a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed
up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around.
That’s a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark
enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the
twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding.
Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up.
And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg,
South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta,
Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee—the cry is always the
same: “We want to be free.”

And another reason that I’m happy to live in this period is that we have
been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the
problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but
the demands didn’t force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple
with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But
now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice
between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or
nonexistence. That is where we are today.

And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn’t done, and done
in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long
years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is
doomed. Now, I’m just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period
to see what is unfolding. And I’m happy that He’s allowed me to be in
Memphis.

[...]

And that’s all this whole thing is about. We aren’t engaged in any
negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying
that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are
saying—We are saying that we are God’s children. And that we are God’s
children, we don’t have to live like we are forced to live.

Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means
that we’ve got to stay together. We’ve got to stay together and maintain
unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery
in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that?
He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get
together, something happens in Pharaoh’s court, and he cannot hold the
slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that’s the beginning of
getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.”

To read the rest of the speech, [ [link removed] ]click here. 

In our world today, there is confusion, there is trouble, and the nation
is sick (quite literally). But as Dr. King says, “only when it is dark
enough can you see the stars”.  

The masses of people are rising up and we are being forced to grapple with
the problems of the last century because it’s imperative to our survival.
To keep fighting and achieving the change that we need, we must do it
together, unified as one. 

“I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you
to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Thank you. 

Team AOC


 

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