Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day.  I had the day off and spent most of it working on miscellaneous tasks to prepare for our trip to Korea.  I can’t believe that in less than a month we will be in Seoul.  I can’t wait.  The day was very quiet, and many of the day’s festivities were held elsewhere in places such as Atlanta.

Martin Luther King Day is a day to reflect on Dr. King and his legacy.  I remember standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial looking down on the Reflecting Pool late last year.  The scene still looks much as it did when Dr. King stood on its steps on August 28, 1963 and gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.  The World War II Memorial now sits at the other end of the pool honoring those who gave their lives during that war.  I imagined the National Mall filled with an audience listening intently to Dr. King’s speech.  It must have been an amazing day.  I remember listening to Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) talk about it years ago when I worked on the Hill.  I think that we’ve come a long way as a society in promoting opportunity for all and countering racism, although there is much still to do.  What that entails I’ll leave up to you to decide, because each of us has our own view of what the day stands for and what must be done.  That is the essence of what the holiday represents–a reflection on diversity of race and of opinion. 

Most people have never read Dr. King’s speech.  It’s one of the great speeches in American history I believe all people should read and ponder.  You may not agree with it at all or in its entirety, but it still sends a powerful message.  The message that strikes me most is unity.  It talks about a struggle for justice and equality that is so common today in politics, but it also calls for unity.  This message is so easy to overlook.  Americans need to come together, not as Democrat, Republican or independent, liberal or conservative, urban or rural, Red or Blue Stater, African American, Caucasian, Asian, or Native American, but as Americans.  The day that this happens will be a very good day for America, and it will be much easier to tackle injustice when we work together. 

Here is the speech in its entirety.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

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 that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. 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 is our hope. This is the faith with which I return 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. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

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 peaks 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 every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

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!”

For my 2012 post commemorating Martin Luther King Day, click here.

Last night we went over to my colleagues’ apartment for a bibimbap party celebrating our imminent departure to Korea.  What’s bibimbap?  It’s a Korean dish featuring a potpourri of vegetables (meat optional) over rice with sesame seed oil and red pepper paste.  I uploaded a couple photos of bibimbap to the photos section.  My colleague’s mother prepared all the ingredients.  It really whet my appetite for Korean food.  Lately I’ve abstained from eating Korean food because I know we’re going to eat a heckuva lot while we’re in Seoul.  Our friends hosted a lovely party featuring bibimbap, seaweed soup, wine, and dessert.  They even printed up a nice menu for us!  The dinner was absolute delicious.  It was much better than other get togethers we’ve had at local places such as Rock Bottom Brewery.  I’m grateful for their hospitality.

This morning I saw an interesting sight.  I saw a Toyota Prius hybrid driving in the right lane, and right behind it I saw a Mercedes SUV.  While that was not unusual, what was ironic to me were the bumper stickers they each sported prominently on the back of their cars.  (It’s one of those moments when you wish you had a digital camera handy to take a quick photo to capture the memory.)  The Prius featured a "Kerry-Edwards" bumper sticker, and the Mercedes had a "W" George W. Bush campaign sticker.  I couldn’t help but catch a look at the cars’ inhabitants.  While I won’t go into detail on their physical features, I will say that it was very obvious from their appearance and attire what political party they supported.  You really are what you drive, I guess!  I would not have thought about their political leanings until I read their bumper stickers.  They invited me to think about it when they affixed those stickers.  A Prius is an environmentally-friendly vehicle with great gas mileage, while a Mercedes signifies affluency.  (I drive neither.)  I wonder sometimes why people leave campaign bumper stickers on their cars long after elections.  There’s still a noticeable number of "Kerry-Edwards" plastered on the backs of cars driving around Northern Virginia (and "W" stickers too, although not as many–the D.C. area is not "Bush" country).  I think many people are leaving them on their cars as a way to quietly protest the election result.  I still occasionally see Gore-Lieberman and other old campaign bumper stickers on cars driving around town.  I even saw a Reagan bumper sticker a few months ago.  Come on.  There comes a time when it’s time to scrape the bumper stickers off, I think, especially when they become faded or tattered.  And I wonder sometimes why people put more than 10 bumper stickers on their cars.  There’s a car parked in our apartment complex with perhaps 40 different bumper stickers plastered on the back and sides of the car, very obvious demonstrating what political affiliation the driver is.  There are stickers even plastered on the cars’ windows, something I think might be a bit dangerous because they create blind spots for the driver.  As for me, I try not to advertise my own beliefs on my vehicle.  I believe that Americans put entirely too many bumper stickers on their cars.  When you travel abroad or even go to Canada you don’t see nearly as many on vehicles as you do in the U.S.  It may be that Americans take politics too serious and do their best to assert their own beliefs or convert others to their own beliefs.  I wish people on both the Left and Right would temper their political views.  The recent presidential election was particularly decisive and blood pressure on both sides was very high.  I just hope they cool down…and put away the bumper stickers until the next election campaign.

Note:  The writer is not related to 2004 Vice-Presidential Nominee John Edwards.