Martin Luther King, Jr. - We've learned to fly the air like birds...

On August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  took the stand and began his famous “I have a dream speech” with the following words:

 “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.”

By the time King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, he had left us all with his universal message of peace, freedom , justice and the dignity of being human. His words many years later continue to touch, move and inspire and are so relevant to the times we  currently live in. Dr. King’s vision went far beyond garnering equal rights for his own racial group. His experience of oppression and suffering led him to identify with all who suffer from systems and structures that exclude them. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Dr. King used the metaphor of a “World House” to remind us that we all inhabit the same fragile planet and that the way we live together will either make the house more habitable or destroy it altogether. He went on to say

 "Every man lives in two realms, the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live. Our problem today is that we have allowed the internal to become lost in the external. We have allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live. So much of modern life can be summarized in that arresting dictum of the poet Thoreau: ‘Improved means to an unimproved end.’ This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem confronting modern man. If we are to survive today, our moral and spiritual ‘lag’ must be eliminated. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul."

Our survival depends on solving these problems", King said, adding that "The solution of these problems is in turn dependent upon man squaring his moral progress with his scientific progress, and learning the practical art of living in harmony."

 Let our quest for peace and justice long continue,

.https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/lecture/