Meditation Moment: The Dream Continues 60 Years On ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 2023

An Excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I have a Dream speech

from August 28, 1963, Washington, D.C.

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 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 made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

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 mountainside, 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 mighty mountains of New York. 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 Stone Mountain of Georgia!

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 of God's children, black men and white men, 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, we are free at last!"

August 28, 2023: And again we pray, Lord of All There Is, Seen and Unseen, bring them and us together, to know, to see, to understand, to accept and honor that we are ALL of Your Creation, that we are better for one another together than fighting against our common interests apart, rewarding false prophets and power mongers and damaging the lives of Your Own from where we each are to across this country and the entire planet:

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [from The Book of Common Prayer, page 823, Prayers for the Social Order, 27. For Social Justice]

Full text:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/17/i-have-a-dream-speech-text_n_809993.html

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