Stan’s Corner, Monday, January 16, 2012

Here are some of the closing words of Martin Luther King’s famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., in 1963.

“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 is our hope.  This is the faith with which I go back to the South.  With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.  With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood…

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.  So let freedom ring…from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado?  Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!  But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!   Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!…

When we let freedom 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!”