King at Riverside
David W. Stowe
In place of holiday cards, a friend of mine who teaches at CUNY sends out original cards on Martin Luther King Day. To get one you need to complete her survey:
Not a bad menu of choices for readers of RiAH. Listen in on one of the twentieth century's
great jeremiads, delivered from that citadel of the liberal mainline, Riverside
Church, exactly one year before King's asassination:
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| King at Riverside Church, April 1967 |
In place of holiday cards, a friend of mine who teaches at CUNY sends out original cards on Martin Luther King Day. To get one you need to complete her survey:
Yes, I make you fill
this out every year, even if you haven't moved. It's part of the fun. Please
submit your address to make sure you get your 2013 MLK day card. Then go sign
up to volunteer somewhere... http://mlkday.gov Oh, and
let me know how you're doing. I miss you!
What are you doing for
MLK Day? *
- Volunteering
- Waiting
by the mailbox for my card
- Reading
a lesser known MLK speech
- Watching
an MLK speech on Youtube
- Thanking
a teacher, community activist, friend, etc. for their work for social
justice
- Thinking
about what I can do to participate in creating a more just society
everyday!
- Participating
in some anti-gun violence initiative
- Attending
a community event
- Other:
 | |
| King answers questions after his Riverside speech |
I come to this magnificent house of worship
tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join you in this
meeting because I'm in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the
organization which has brought us together:Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam. The
recent statements of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own
heart, and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A
time comes when silence is betrayal." And that time has come for us in
relation to Vietnam....
We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that
tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this
unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too
late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing
bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of
men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to
pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes
on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are
written the pathetic words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of
life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is
right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on."
If King were still alive he'd be
84; what would he say to Barack Obama at today's inauguration?
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