January 15 - The Birthday, Not The Holiday

[Erica Cartman]

Tomorrow, Martin Luther King would have turned 75 years old. Of course, with our penchant for Monday holidays, his birthday holiday comes the 3rd Monday of January; this year it will be next Monday, January 19th.

I would like to propose something of a demonstration. We probably won't have the 2004 Primary GD thread tomorrow; so, let's go a step further in solidarity.

What do you say we all take one of the 2 available MLK avatars just for his birthday? I think that would look so great; all members being MLK for a day (okay, so I'm sentimental).


Some Quotes From Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; 1/15/29-4/4/68)


It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 13, 1962

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
"Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 April 1963

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.
"Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.
"Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
"Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963

If a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
Speech in Detroit, Michigan on June 23, 1963

I have a dream that my four little 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" speech, August 28, 1963

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement 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 spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
"I Have a Dream" speech, August 28, 1963

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
Speech in St. Louis, Missouri, March 22, 1964

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.
Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, December 10, 1964

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.
"Where do we go from here?" speech, August 16, 1967

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land . . . So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.
"I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, April 3, 1968 (the day before his assassination)

[bigtree]

1. kick

:kick: