From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2006 #16 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Archives: http://www.smoe.org/lists/joni Websites: http://www.jmdl.com http://www.jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Monday, January 16 2006 Volume 2006 : Number 016 Win a free VIP ticket to Carnegie Hall! details: jmdl.com/winvip.cfm ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- COUNT DOWN [LCStanley7@aol.com] Re: Golden Reggie/Hejira [Patti Witten ] Golden Reggie [J Kendel Johnson ] MLK Jr. Day [JRMCo1@aol.com] Peace today! njc [LCStanley7@aol.com] Re: MLK Jr. Day ["Donna Binkley" ] Christa McAuliffe, njc ["Marianne Rizzo" ] Re: Joni Tribute 'Surprise Guests!' ["Kate Bennett" ] Paul Meyer-Strom wins VIP ticket ["Les Irvin" ] RE: Jokes in Joni songs ["Les Irvin" ] =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:=20[NortheastJonifest]=A0=20Post=20tribute=20 p?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?lans=20-=20more=20about=20seppi's?= [] Re: onlyJMDL Digest V2006 #15 [Jahida Jorganes ] Re: joni carnegie, meet up ["Donna Binkley" ] Re: Paul Meyer-Strom wins VIP ticket ["Donna Binkley" ] "Joni: Back to the Garden" [JRMCo1@aol.com] Interested in Tickets for The Music of Joni Mitchell ["Frank Clay" ] Update on Beth Patterson, njc ["Jim L'Hommedieu, Lama" ] Discovered Joni because people say I sound like her ["Rachael Byrnes" Subject: Re: Golden Reggie/Hejira > I vaguely remember at the time "Hejira" was released there was some mention > of Canadian figure skater Toller Cranston. I can't remember if he was Golden > Reggie, or he was the skater in the cover photo posed with the bride, or both. > Anyway... if he was I'm sure Joni realizes by now that his is a raging > homosexual...tossing that out there if anyone cares to chew on it! Seriously, I'm sure many straight women chased "golden reggies." I know I did. The ironies and symbolism are universal. Love is love, both terrible and beautiful. Patti - -- http://pattiwitten.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 05:25:13 -0800 (PST) From: J Kendel Johnson Subject: Golden Reggie Hello, all. Bit of a lurker here. I was a member years ago, then resubscribed to the list just a few days ago. Thought I would offer my two-cents worth on "Golden Reggie" I've always assumed Joni was employing the specific memory (that Sharon probably also shared, though not necessarily) of a "golden boy"  a la the high school quarter back or equivalently attractive young man with local star quality that all the girls drooled over  in a brilliantly abbreviated two-word word painting that instantly communicates an image and circumstance that resonates with anyones memories of the romantic pains and triumphs of adolescence. (Chasing also referring to both literal and daydreamed attempts to land the affections of ones beloved.) I've also always assumed that, in keeping with overall Joni language and imagery, "Reggie" was a reference to the Latin root "reg", meaning "king"  again, in this case, the most admired and sought after boy in town, school, etc., owing to his social status, physical beauty, athletic prowess and/or other charms. I dont remember too much specifically about the Reggie character from the Archies, but, since Im guessing he also fits in that desirable adolescent boy category, a double reference to the Reggie of The Archies is almost inescapable, given Jonis age and that of her audience  and her many other references to teenie bopper culture from the 50s and early 60s. Hence, the reference is both timeless  Latin Reg  American pop culture specific, and entirely personal. Just the sort of deceptively rich depth of writing that caused David Crosby to declare Joni the Shakespeare of our times. Romanticizing an elusive beloved as her "king" is, of course, a motif Joni begins with in her very first song on JM  I had a king in a tenement castle. Peace, J ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 09:54:47 EST From: JRMCo1@aol.com Subject: MLK Jr. Day My mother reminded me of this poem I wrote a decade ago. Thought I'd share: MLK Jr. Day We got the message of love he sent And we've read all Hope's Testament Will we still dare to raise our heads? So long unbowed. So we've bled. These unlocked chains don't mean we're free. Our stardust ain't cosmology. Yet, celebrate! Sisters and brothers, we can! Our time has come! This Is Our Land! We'll pity those Who are not so blessed-- Reaching for more, Grasping far less. When our souls' treasures give account Nothing of this world is paramount. - -Julius Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, everyone. Peace. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 10:27:43 EST From: LCStanley7@aol.com Subject: Peace today! njc Let's visualize world peace today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King quotes: We are not makers of history. We are made by history. From Strength to Love, 1963 If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, "There lived a great peopleba black peoplebwho injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization." From an address given in Montgomery, Ala., Dec. 31, 1955 The question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be. From "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963 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." From the _"I Have a Dream" speech_ (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0874987.html) , Aug. 28, 1963 There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. From "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 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. From "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963 Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. From Strength to Love, 1963 I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow, but to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. From "Rediscovering Lost Values," Feb. 28, 1954 (let Negroes = women, gays, poor, etc.) 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. From a speech given to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Aug. 16, 1967 I just want to do God's will. And hebs allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. From an address given in Memphis the night before his assassination, April 3, 1968 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 Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Dec. 10, 1964 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. From the _"I Have a Dream"_ (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0874987.html) speech, Aug. 28, 1963 (let Negroes = women, gays, poor, etc.) The sweltering summer of the Negrobs legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. From the _"I Have a Dream"_ (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0874987.html) speech, Aug. 28, 1963 Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. The Measure of a Man, 1958 A riot is the language of the unheard. From an address given in Birmingham, Ala., Dec. 31, 1963 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. But not only that: Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From the "I Have a Dream" speech, Aug. 28, 1963 Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. From "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963 (let white = prejudice) If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive. On learning of threats on his life, June 5, 1964 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 09:58:20 -0600 From: "Donna Binkley" Subject: Re: MLK Jr. Day This is a lovely poem Julius, thank you for sharing it. Pacifica was playing a recording of his I Have A Dream speech on it's local Houston radio station this morning and I enjoyed it on the way to work. I love public radio, it is the only station that plays any Joni around here. db >>> 1/16/2006 8:54:47 AM >>> My mother reminded me of this poem I wrote a decade ago. Thought I'd share: MLK Jr. Day We got the message of love he sent And we've read all Hope's Testament Will we still dare to raise our heads? So long unbowed. So we've bled. These unlocked chains don't mean we're free. Our stardust ain't cosmology. Yet, celebrate! Sisters and brothers, we can! Our time has come! This Is Our Land! We'll pity those Who are not so blessed-- Reaching for more, Grasping far less. When our souls' treasures give account Nothing of this world is paramount. - -Julius Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, everyone. Peace. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 11:32:52 -0500 From: "Marianne Rizzo" Subject: Christa McAuliffe, njc Joni friends, My friend Renee and her girlfriend made a documentary on Chrisata McAuliffe. .. it came out a few months ago. Renee is from Rochester, and lives mostly in L. A. now. . This documentary is beinig partially aired on CNN next week and the week after. See below for details. Susan Sarandon narrates the documentary and Carly Simon has written a song and has provided all the music. . It is a beautiful documentary. . I sent the entire documentary to Laura . . . she watched it . . I am hoping that anyone on the list who wants to see it can recieve it in the mail and then send it to the next person. . . If you would like to see it. . .you can email me and I will get a list going . . I would like you to send it to the next person also. .. see below. . a one hour feature of the two hour documentary. . try not to miss it. It is very inspiring. Marianne see, below. . . I just got this from my friend Renee today. Dear Family, Friends & Colleagues, Each one of you has "been there and done that" for us in the creation of Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars, and now millions will see her story! (check it out below!) Our teaming up with CNN Presents has been a wonderful collaboration The film is a shorten versionB but the essence of our story is intact Thanks for helping us Reach for the Stars and carry on Christa's legacy. Love, Renee & Mary Jo www.teacher1986.com For Release: Jan. 13, 2006 CNN Reveals Private Life of Christa McAuliffe 20 Years After Challenger Disaster Twenty years ago this month the NASA space shuttle Challenger exploded, traumatizing the nation and taking the lives of its seven-member crew. Among them was Christa McAuliffe, the first school teacher selected to travel to space and a woman whose sunny public persona often belied a passionate, outspoken activism. CNN Presents Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars is the little-known story of her life outside of the public spotlight and its continuing impact upon those she touched. The one-hour special, hosted and narrated by CNN anchor Paula Zahn, airs on Sunday, Jan. 22, at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.The program re-airs on Saturday, Jan. 28, and Sunday, Jan. 29, at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. (all times Eastern). Filmmakers Renee Sotile and Mary Jo Godges spent numerous hours with McAuliffes family members including her mother, son and sisters for the documentary. They interviewed NASA officials, astronauts, former colleagues and friends who share personal memories of McAuliffe and candidly reflect on the events surrounding the shuttle explosion in the film. The program, Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars, features the original song You Where I Go, by award-winning singer Carly Simon, written for the film in memory of the extraordinary life and legacy of Christa McAuliffe. Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars, was written, produced and directed by Sotile and Godges. _________________________________________________________________ On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 08:43:53 -0800 From: "Kate Bennett" Subject: Re: Joni Tribute 'Surprise Guests!' Croz & Nash (just a wild guess) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 10:58:53 -0600 From: "J.DAVID SAPP" Subject: Re: joni carnegie, meet up ///I will be arriving at Park Central Hotel at around 2:30 p.m. on Feb. = 1.=20 I will be happy to meet with yall before the show for coffee and chatting./// I will be arriving at Park Central Hotel at around 1;30 - so look me up peace, david No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.19/231 - Release Date: 1/16/06 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 10:28:07 -0700 From: "Les Irvin" Subject: Paul Meyer-Strom wins VIP ticket Joniphiles - Thanks to all who donated to the fundraiser for Music For Youth. Over $400 has been raised. Paul Meyer-Strom is the lucky winner in the drawing for the VIP ticket to the tribute at Carnegie Hall. Thanks again to all the contributors! Les ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 10:42:01 -0700 From: "Les Irvin" Subject: RE: Jokes in Joni songs >Joni's terrific sense of humour as revealed in her songs. One of my favorite "humorous" lines is this from A Case of You: And I said "Constantly in the darkness Where's that at? If you want me I'll be in the bar" I've always read this as a clever bit of irony on Joni's part - first judging him for hanging out in the darkness then saying, in effect "you can find me hanging out in a dark corner of the bar". Les ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 13:05:14 EST From: JRMCo1@aol.com Subject: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:=20[NortheastJonifest]=A0=20Post=20tribute=20 p?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?lans=20-=20more=20about=20seppi's?= Please add Alison and her sister Nicole, to the rsvp list for Seppi's, Patrick. I'm almost certain they'll want to join in. Thanks! - -Julius ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 10:18:56 -0800 (PST) From: Jahida Jorganes Subject: Re: onlyJMDL Digest V2006 #15 Hey everyone!! I would like to be put into the reservation for the restaurant afterwards as well. I have a class the next day, but hey, I can sleep for the whole 6 hour ride right? I am so incredibly excited and I have been telling all of my friends at school today (first day back for classes). I can't wait to meet all of you! Jahida - --------------------------------- Yahoo! Photos Got holiday prints? See all the ways to get quality prints in your hands ASAP. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 13:49:18 -0600 From: "Donna Binkley" Subject: Re: joni carnegie, meet up Sounds good I'll do that! db >>> "J.DAVID SAPP" 1/16/2006 10:58:53 AM >>> ///I will be arriving at Park Central Hotel at around 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 1. I will be happy to meet with yall before the show for coffee and chatting./// I will be arriving at Park Central Hotel at around 1;30 - so look me up peace, david ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 13:49:51 -0600 From: "Donna Binkley" Subject: Re: Paul Meyer-Strom wins VIP ticket Congratulations Paul! Can't wait to meet you. db >>> "Les Irvin" 1/16/2006 11:28:07 AM >>> Joniphiles - Thanks to all who donated to the fundraiser for Music For Youth. Over $400 has been raised. Paul Meyer-Strom is the lucky winner in the drawing for the VIP ticket to the tribute at Carnegie Hall. Thanks again to all the contributors! Les ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 19:53:54 +0000 From: "Patti Parlette" Subject: njc, Bon appetit a NYC Dear Tribute Goers Who Are Also Gourmets: I came upon a friend of mine He was walking down the hall I told him where we're going And this he told me: It is "Restaurant Week" in NYC during the Tribute dates! Can you believe our good luck? Here is more info for those who may be hanging around for a few days and want to spread their gastronomic wings and fly away: ************************************ New York Restaurant Week Gourmet Prix-Fixe Menus Jan. 23-27 and Jan. 30-Feb. 3, 2006 Enjoy special three-course, prix-fixe menus at some of the city's best restaurants. Duration: January 23-27 and January 30 - February 3, 2006 (Monday through Friday only) Pricing: $24.07 lunches, $35 dinners; prices are per person and do not include beverage, tax or gratuity Participating Restaurants: See list below. Please ask for the official Restaurant Week menu when you are seated. **Note: Not all restaurants on OpenTable.com are participating in the NYC&Co Restaurant Week, and not all participating restaurants offer the Restaurant Week menu at both meals. Please refer to the list below for participating restaurants and their specific meal offerings. Here is the link: http://www.opentable.com/promo.aspx?pid=69&m=8 ******************************************************** He says dinners at these places are usually $100 plus, so this is quite the deal. Everything seems to be coming up for the roses, n'est-ce pas? Love, Patti P. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 15:14:54 EST From: JRMCo1@aol.com Subject: "Joni: Back to the Garden" Video interview with Joni Mitchell wherein she discusses "Woodstock" for the 'Millennium Project.' Quite interesting in the context of the events of the day. http://www.oriononline.org/pages/oo/millennium/Mitchell/mitchell_56.html - -Julius ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 16:10:21 -0500 From: "Frank Clay" Subject: Interested in Tickets for The Music of Joni Mitchell To Whom It May Concern: I am interested in a pair of tickets, if they become available, to the concert "The music of Joni Mitchell" at Carnegie Hall, I would truly love to attend this event. My contact information is listed below or e-mail at this address. Thank You, Frank Clay Simply Birkenstock PO Box 130 New Hampton, NH 03256 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 15:28:32 -0800 (PST) From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: Interested in Tickets for The Music of Joni Mitchell Frank, I'm assuming you've contacted the box office, etc. and they're telling you that nothing is available. There's a pair up on ebay if you're interested: http://cgi.ebay.com/Joni-Mitchell-A-tribute-concert-benefit-NY-2-01-2006_W0QQitemZ6597408002QQcategoryZ16122QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Good luck pal! Bob aka "Whom it may concern" NP: Suzanne Vega, "Some Journey" - --------------------------------- Yahoo! Photos  Showcase holiday pictures in hardcover Photo Books. You design it and well bind it! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 16:49:17 -0700 From: "Les Irvin" Subject: Volunteer needed at JoniMitchell.com Hi folks - I'm looking for a volunteer to do an internet research project for the new JoniMitchell.com site: 1) Tracking down song lyrics. 2) Tracking down album cover graphics. 3) Familiarity with on-line web forms a plus. If interested, please email me off list. Thanks, Les ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 21:36:53 -0500 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu, Lama" Subject: Update on Beth Patterson, njc Beth had some tentative plans to go to Europe when Katrina hit New Orleans. She ducked into Lafayette, moved the plans up, and played in Paris for a while. Last night, she brought a bassist & percussionist/engineer/producer Ron Keller to Columbus, OH. I got there late and had to leave early but they sounded great. Best of all, she's been writing too. Jim L'Hommedieu PS, Here's a note to new folks: All 3 albums are available at CD Baby. My favorite is "Take Some Fire" because she reworked the story of Moses into "Exodus". The subject is serious but she stamps it with humor. Moses recalls the kindness of his adoptive mother, who found him floating down stream: >Didn't you come along?> >Come along and say> >"That ain't no way to treat a baby.> >No way to treat a baby."> ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 21:58:04 -0500 From: "Joe Gavrilovich" Subject: RE: onlyJMDL Digest V2006 #15 Ok... once more, I'm trying this reply-to-posting *again*... Hi all, So I subscribed to the list in early November -- the 7th to be exact. So I haven't been lurking for long, and I've enjoyed the discussions! I've been listening to Joni Mitchell's music for about 8 or 9 years now... I bought my first Joni Mitchell CD (yeah, it was "Hits") when I realized that most of the artists I listened to in high school considered her to be an essential influence. Well, their CDs in my collection have gathered a lot of dust since then :) For all the little changes -- the new things I've taken on, the other things I've put away -- that have come with growing up through my early/mid 20s, I can say with certainty that she's been a constant. I live for the look on my friends' faces when they ask what Joni Mitchell's all about, and I respond by putting on a song like "Rainy Night House" or "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" or "Off Night Backstreet"... My friend Ben liked that one so much that he went out and bought Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -- his first Joni Mitchell album, and he picked DJRD! I love it!! I'm going to go to the Carnegie Hall show. It's going to be expensive, but it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance, particularly because I have it on good authority (from this list!) that she'll be there. Looking forward to participating in the discussion -- bizarre as it may get ;) j0E G. in Raleigh, NC "I am not young enough to know everything." ~ Oscar Wilde http://www.myspace.com/joni_joe ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 15:08:10 +1100 From: "Rachael Byrnes" Subject: Discovered Joni because people say I sound like her Hello Joni Fans, I'm new to this list so I thought I would introduce myself! My name is Rachael and I'm a singer/songwriter from Melbourne and of course a great Joni Mitchell fan! I always knew of Joni Mitchell but only recently started to listen to her because many people have said to me that I sound like her, or that my music reminds them of hers. After listening to a few of her early albums I decided that these comparisons were far to kind! I think she is brilliant. Sometimes it's frustrating when people say this to me because I want to have my own identity, but it's also flattering. Maybe you might like to listen and let me know what you think? I have too songs on my site that you can download for free if your interested. www.rachaelbyrnes.blogspot.com I'm currently studying jazz and contemporary music, so Joni, with her explorations in folk, jazz and fusion music is a real inspiration to me. Look forward to future discussions Best wishes Rachael Byrnes ______________________________ Rachael Byrnes rachbyrnes@hotmail.com Proudly endorsing Downshifting Downunder http://www.downshifting.net.au ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 23:35:52 -0500 From: simon@icu.com Subject: Dr. King - "A Dream Deferred" it's Important! to note ... seventy-seven years ago, on January 15, 1929 ... the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born. America is a better country today because of that fact. too bad Amerika no longer seems to care. the dream remains UnFulfilled! apparently deferred ... A DREAM DEFERRED by Langston Hughes What Happens To A Dream Deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore -- And then run? Does it stink like a rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over -- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. OR DOES IT EXPLODE? (p) 1959 sameasiteverwas, - --------------------- simon ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 23:36:12 -0500 From: simon@icu.com Subject: Dr. King, Not! a dreamer JONI MITCHELL: "They kill people who give hope in this culture." DUBBED PLACID, KING's MILITANT VOICE IS REVEALED By Maynard Eaton All too often the media, political leaders and too many historians miscast and misrepresent Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as merely a placid, non-confrontational civil rights advocate who was content to focus on integration. The world has been duped into believing that the essence of Dr. King's message and mission is embodied in his "I Have A Dream" speech. While that marketing ploy and characterization of Dr. King's work and wizardry has made him a palatable folk hero, it has also skewed the substance of the King saga. That personification fails to recognize how this charismatic leader emerged as such a threat to America's economic interests he had to be eliminated. Those who worked with and marched with Dr. King say image-makers are attempting to sanitize this African-American icon. "Dr. King was a radical revolutionary," opines Georgia State Representative Tyrone Brooks, formerly the national field director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. "White America is trying to change the image of King so that our children and unborn generations will not view the real King that we knew. Dr. King was not someone who walked around dreaming all the time. Dr. King was an activist and a true revolutionary." "He was always militant," says former SCLC President Dr. Joseph Lowery of King. "Anybody who talks about staying off the buses and challenging folk to walk is militant. Talking about public accommodations and the denial of the voting rights; all that is militant. He was dynamically and actively militantly non-violent." Brooks contends that Dr. King was assassinated because he was about to redirect the civil rights movement into another dimension -- economic parity. "White America decided that this man has certainly been a catalyst in bringing about social change in terms of desegregation and voting rights, but now this man is talking about altering the way America does business and talking about a redistribution of American wealth to the poor and the disenfranchised," Brooks said. "It really upset America." Says Dr. Lowery of the discernable shift in Dr. King's thinking and leadership; "The movement moved away from the customer side of the lunch counter to the cash register side. People who were willing to deal with segregation and busing and lunch counters were not quite ready to deal with economic integration. And so he died. They didn't care about niggas riding the bus, but when you talk about owning the banks and dividing the pie up, that's another proposition. You're talking about a seat at the economic table and even today there is pretty stiff resistance [to that]." During the first decade of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. had been hesitant to become involved in other political issues, for fear of weakening the cause for racial justice. By 1967, however in a speech at Riverside Church in New York City that many considered momentous, he declared his opposition to the Vietnam War. That speech; that moment amounted to a paradigm shift for the movement and the man. "Peace and civil rights don't mix, [people] say," Dr. King said. "Aren't you hurting the cause of your people, they ask. And when I hear them, although I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling." "I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube," Dr. King continued. "So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such? We were taking the young Black men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia, which they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Harlem." Both Lowery and Brooks say that after that controversial speech, Black and White America took a different view of King. "The war was about economics as well as humanness," Dr. Lowery argues. "Martin said 'the bombs that explode in Vietnam in the '60s will explode in our economy in the '70s and '80s.' And, it did." "[Dr. King] was roundly criticized by all the establishment Black leadership. They all condemned Dr. King for that speech," Rep. Brooks recalls. "They said he'd gone too far and that the movement ought not get involved with foreign affairs. King said look at the amount of money that is coming out the American taxpayers' pocket, including Black people, that's financing this war. After that speech, you saw the anti-war movement really grow, young, White liberals and other civil rights leaders got on board. So, the King speech at Riverside Church laid the foundation for that overwhelming American response which said the war must end now." Brooks said it is most important and ultimately tragic that people began to see Dr. King as just a civil rights leader who would focus on domestic policy, not as an international, global leader. Hopefully future generations will recognize that his deeds and his direction include far more than just his dream of integration. sameasiteverwas, - --------------------- simon ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 23:37:13 -0500 From: simon@icu.com Subject: 'HOW LONG?' (PostOpinion) New York Post Jan. 16, 2006 'HOW LONG?' Martin Luther King's speech at the zenith of the civil-rights movement. On March 25, 1965, in Montgomery, beneath the dome of Alabama's capitol, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to thousands of voting-rights marchers whom he had led 54 miles from Selma, over five days, under federal protection. In Montgomery, nearly 10 years earlier, the King-led bus boycott broke a crucial barrier of segregation. Rosa Parks, who sparked the boycott, also addressed the throng. As once before at the March On Washington, but never again in King's lifetime, cameras from every network transmitted the full speech nationwide. In the new book "At Canaan's Edge," last in his trilogy about King and the civil rights era, Pulitzer Prize-winner Taylor Branch captures King's power, spirit and passion at the conclusion of a landmark speech. -- The Editors By Taylor Branch Martin Luther King Jr. emphasized the stakes of historical choice when the south imposed segregation. "We've come a long way since that travesty of justice was perpetrated on the American mind," he told the rally. "James Weldon Johnson put it eloquently. He said: "We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered" The crowd fell silent as King touched bottom. Whatever had created segregation from slavery, both durable beyond the life span of totalitarian inventions since, he looked unflinching at the consequences. Far from crafting artificial comfort for white listeners, he was quoting the middle stanza of the accepted "Negro National Anthem" -- a portion of Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing" that recalled degradation too harshly for many slave descendants themselves. Often omitted from performance, that stanza evoked formless ghosts of the ancient Middle Passage into slavery, with sharp echoes more recently from the eras of lynching and Civil War. Outside Fort Pillow, Tenn., where his Confederates massacred surrendered Black troops, Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest has written straightforwardly in his battle report: "The river was dyed red with the blood of the slaughtered for 200 yards." The wife of the white Union commander interceded with Abraham Lincoln on behalf of fresh sister widows who, as fugitive chattel under state laws, had no more rights to veterans' benefits than did animals or furniture, and Congress, answering Lincoln's proposal to treat ex-slave orphans and widows "as though their marriages were legal" granted family status to Negroes by law passed on July 2, 1864, a century to the day ahead of the Civil Rights Act that abolished segregation in the summer before Selma. King's mood snapped forward: "Today I want to tell the city of Selma." "Tell 'em, now," came a shout. "Today I want to say to the state of Alabama. "Yes sir." "Today I want to say to the people of America, and the nations of the world, that we are not about to turn around. We are on the move now. Yes, we are on the move, and no wave of racism can stop us." Yes, sir." "We are on the move now. And the burning of our churches will not deter us. We are on the move now . . ." His voice rose steadily in pitch as he pictured an inexorable move through obstacle and sacrifice, then shifted his drumbeat phrase to a march. "Let us march on segregated housing," King intoned. "Let us march on segregated schools, until . . . Let us march on poverty, until . . . Let us march on ballot boxes, until we send men . . . who will not fear to 'do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.' " After embellishing the march on ballot boxes seven times near the peak of his baritone register, King slowed to give respite. "There is nothing wrong with marching in this sense," he said." The Bible tells us that the mighty men of Joshua merely walked about the walled city of Jericho, and the barriers for freedom came tumbling down." He quoted words of the slave spiritual slowly and intimately in dialect, "just as they were given to us: "Joshua fit the battle of Jericho Joshua fit the battle of Jericho . . . Go blow dem ram horns, Joshua cried, Cause de battle am in my hand." King asked his listeners to honor the "unknown, long gone Black bard" with a worthy reply. The battle is in our hands," he said. "We can answer with creative nonviolence the call to higher ground." He lifted up personal memories of Montgomery's bus boycott as "wondrous signs of our times, so full of hope . . . the faces so bright," and added to the answering roll the names of martyrs down to Jimmie Lee Jackson and James Reeb. "The patter of their feet . . . is the thunder of the marching men of Joshua, and the world rocks beneath their tread," he sang out solemnly. "My people, my people, listen. The battle is in our hands." King paused briefly, having run out of prepared text. He improvised first to answer persistent appeals by critics and bystanders for an end to troubling agitation. He rejected their rhetorical image of prior tranquility, saying normalcy had shrugged off brutal terror and merely frowned over bombed churches. "It is normalcy all over Alabama that prevents the Negro from becoming a registered voter," he said. His distinctive, anguished voice heated the word "normalcy" into an improbably engine of speech momentum, fired 15 times over 10 sentences. "The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that allows judgment to run down like waters and righteousness like a might stream," King shouted, transposing the prophet Amos. He rushed on from memory to make three final appeals for nonviolence in the struggle to build "a society at peace with itself," then spoke to yearnings within. "I know you are asking today, how long will it take?" he confessed. "Somebody's asking, how long will prejudice blind the visions . . . Somebody's asking . . . " Only then did King let loose words that would be remembered from the zenith of the freedom movement. Inside the capitol, Gov. George Wallace watched three television sets and peeked at the future electorate through an aide's window blinds, so as not to be seen shuttered in his own office. Outside, King's presentation cut across tender seams of comfort and color among his own sympathizers -- too black in tone, too nonviolent, too dark and in warning from Reconstruction history against another slow erosion of hope. "How long will justice be crucified and truth buried?" King cried out in Montgomery. "I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long. Because truth crushed to earth will rise again. How Long? Not Long! Because no lie can live forever. How long? Not long! Because you shall reap what you sow. How long?" Already shouts echoed and anticipated his refrain at a driving pace, above cries of encouragement and a low roar of anticipation. "Not long!" "Not Long!" answered a female voice above the others. " 'Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne,' " he recited in passion from the poet James Russell Lowell. "Yet that scaffold sways the future and Behind the dim unknown stands God Within the shadow, keeping watch above his own" "How long" Not long! Because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. How long? Not long!" "Because mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on." King kept on at a gallop, through another stanza of the "Battle Hymn," He slowed only to hurl himself into selected words, trembling at the limit, and to climb still higher through a spoken chorus. "He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat Oh, be swift my soul to answer him, be jubilant my feet Out God is marching on Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Hallelujah!" Crown noise dropped away until this third cannon cry of "Glory," then spilled over the end of the long march. "Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on!" - ---------------------------------- Taylor Branch's books include: "Parting The Waters: America In The King Years 1954-1963," which won the Pulitzer Price for history http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671687425/qid=1137469723/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/ 002-4447866-6182460?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 "Pillar Of Fire: America In The King Years 1963-1965." http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684808196/qid=1137469723/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/ 002-4447866-6182460?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 Excerpted from: "At Canaan's Edge: America In The King Years 1965-1968 by Taylor Branch. ) 2006 by Taylor Branch. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/068485712X/qid=1137469723/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/ 002-4447866-6182460?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 andmoreagain, - ----------------- simon PS: the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 23:37:23 -0500 From: simon@icu.com Subject: 'HOW LONG?' (Full Text) "Our God Is Marching On!" March 25, 1965 Montgomery, Ala. My dear and abiding friends, Ralph Abernathy, and to all of the distinguished Americans seated here on the rostrum, my friends and co-workers of the state of Alabama, and to all of the freedom-loving people who have assembled here this afternoon from all over our nation and from all over the world: Last Sunday, more than eight thousand of us started on a mighty walk from Selma, Alabama. We have walked through desolate valleys and across the trying hills. We have walked on meandering highways and rested our bodies on rocky byways. Some of our faces are burned from the outpourings of the sweltering sun. Some have literally slept in the mud. We have been drenched by the rains. [Audience:] (Speak) Our bodies are tired and our feet are somewhat sore. But today as I stand before you and think back over that great march, I can say, as Sister Pollard said-a seventy-year-old Negro woman who lived in this community during the bus boycott-and one day, she was asked while walking if she didn't want to ride. And when she answered, "No," the person said, "Well, aren't you tired?" And with her ungrammatical profundity, she said, "My feets is tired, but my soul is rested." (Yes, sir. All right) And in a real sense this afternoon, we can say that our feet are tired, (Yes, sir) but our souls are rested. They told us we wouldn't get here. And there were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies, (Well. Yes, sir. Talk) but all the world today knows that we are here and we are standing before the forces of power in the state of Alabama saying, "We ain't goin' let nobody turn us around." (Yes, sir. Speak) [Applause] Now it is not an accident that one of the great marches of American history should terminate in Montgomery, Alabama. (Yes, sir) Just ten years ago, in this very city, a new philosophy was born of the Negro struggle. Montgomery was the first city in the South in which the entire Negro community united and squarely faced its age-old oppressors. (Yes, sir. Well) Out of this struggle, more than bus [de]segregation was won; a new idea, more powerful than guns or clubs was born. Negroes took it and carried it across the South in epic battles (Yes, sir. Speak) that electrified the nation (Well) and the world. Yet, strangely, the climactic conflicts always were fought and won on Alabama soil. After Montgomery's, heroic confrontations loomed up in Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, and elsewhere. But not until the colossus of segregation was challenged in Birmingham did the conscience of America begin to bleed. White America was profoundly aroused by Birmingham because it witnessed the whole community of Negroes facing terror and brutality with majestic scorn and heroic courage. And from the wells of this democratic spirit, the nation finally forced Congress (Well) to write legislation (Yes, sir) in the hope that it would eradicate the stain of Birmingham. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave Negroes some part of their rightful dignity, (Speak, sir) but without the vote it was dignity without strength. (Yes, sir) Once more the method of nonviolent resistance (Yes) was unsheathed from its scabbard, and once again an entire community was mobilized to confront the adversary. (Yes, sir) And again the brutality of a dying order shrieks across the land. Yet, Selma, Alabama, became a shining moment in the conscience of man. If the worst in American life lurked in its dark streets, the best of American instincts arose passionately from across the nation to overcome it. (Yes, sir. Speak) There never was a moment in American history (Yes, sir) more honorable and more inspiring than the pilgrimage of clergymen and laymen of every race and faith pouring into Selma to face danger (Yes) at the side of its embattled Negroes. The confrontation of good and evil compressed in the tiny community of Selma (Speak, speak) generated the massive power (Yes, sir. Yes, sir) to turn the whole nation to a new course. A president born in the South (Well) had the sensitivity to feel the will of the country, (Speak, sir) and in an address that will live in history as one of the most passionate pleas for human rights ever made by a president of our nation, he pledged the might of the federal government to cast off the centuries-old blight. President Johnson rightly praised the courage of the Negro for awakening the conscience of the nation. (Yes, sir) On our part we must pay our profound respects to the white Americans who cherish their democratic traditions over the ugly customs and privileges of generations and come forth boldly to join hands with us. (Yes, sir) From Montgomery to Birmingham, (Yes, sir) from Birmingham to Selma, (Yes, sir) from Selma back to Montgomery, (Yes) a trail wound in a circle long and often bloody, yet it has become a highway up from darkness. (Yes, sir) Alabama has tried to nurture and defend evil, but evil is choking to death in the dusty roads and streets of this state. (Yes, sir. Speak, sir) So I stand before you this afternoon (Speak, sir. Well) with the conviction that segregation is on its deathbed in Alabama, and the only thing uncertain about it is how costly the segregationists and Wallace will make the funeral. (Go ahead. Yes, sir) [Applause] Our whole campaign in Alabama has been centered around the right to vote. In focusing the attention of the nation and the world today on the flagrant denial of the right to vote, we are exposing the very origin, the root cause, of racial segregation in the Southland. Racial segregation as a way of life did not come about as a natural result of hatred between the races immediately after the Civil War. There were no laws segregating the races then. And as the noted historian, C. Vann Woodward, in his book, "The Strange Career of Jim Crow," clearly points out, the segregation of the races was really a political stratagem employed by the emerging Bourbon interests in the South to keep the southern masses divided and southern labor the cheapest in the land. You see, it was a simple thing to keep the poor white masses working for near-starvation wages in the years that followed the Civil War. Why, if the poor white plantation or mill worker became dissatisfied with his low wages, the plantation or mill owner would merely threaten to fire him and hire former Negro slaves and pay him even less. Thus, the southern wage level was kept almost unbearably low. Toward the end of the Reconstruction era, something very significant happened. (Listen to him) That is what was known as the Populist Movement. (Speak, sir) The leaders of this movement began awakening the poor white masses (Yes, sir) and the former Negro slaves to the fact that they were being fleeced by the emerging Bourbon interests. Not only that, but they began uniting the Negro and white masses (Yeah) into a voting bloc that threatened to drive the Bourbon interests from the command posts of political power in the South. To meet this threat, the southern aristocracy began immediately to engineer this development of a segregated society. (Right) I want you to follow me through here because this is very important to see the roots of racism and the denial of the right to vote. Through their control of mass media, they revised the doctrine of white supremacy. They saturated the thinking of the poor white masses with it, (Yes) thus clouding their minds to the real issue involved in the Populist Movement. They then directed the placement on the books of the South of laws that made it a crime for Negroes and whites to come together as equals at any level. (Yes, sir) And that did it. That crippled and eventually destroyed the Populist Movement of the nineteenth century. If it may be said of the slavery era that the white man took the world and gave the Negro Jesus, then it may be said of the Reconstruction era that the southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow. (Yes, sir) He gave him Jim Crow. (Uh huh) And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, (Yes, sir) he ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man. (Right sir) And he ate Jim Crow. (Uh huh) And when his undernourished children cried out for the necessities that his low wages could not provide, he showed them the Jim Crow signs on the buses and in the stores, on the streets and in the public buildings. (Yes, sir) And his children, too, learned to feed upon Jim Crow, (Speak) their last outpost of psychological oblivion. (Yes, sir) Thus, the threat of the free exercise of the ballot by the Negro and the white masses alike (Uh huh) resulted in the establishment of a segregated society. They segregated southern money from the poor whites; they segregated southern mores from the rich whites; (Yes, sir) they segregated southern churches from Christianity (Yes, sir); they segregated southern minds from honest thinking; (Yes, sir) and they segregated the Negro from everything. (Yes, sir) That's what happened when the Negro and white masses of the South threatened to unite and build a great society: a society of justice where none would pray upon the weakness of others; a society of plenty where greed and poverty would be done away; a society of brotherhood where every man would respect the dignity and worth of human personality. (Yes, sir) We've come a long way since that travesty of justice was perpetrated upon the American mind. James Weldon Johnson put it eloquently. He said: We have come over a way That with tears hath been watered. (Yes, sir) We have come treading our paths Through the blood of the slaughtered. (Yes, sir) Out of the gloomy past, (Yes, sir) Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam Of our bright star is cast. (Speak, sir) Today I want to tell the city of Selma, (Tell them, Doctor) today I want to say to the state of Alabama, (Yes, sir) today I want to say to the people of America and the nations of the world, that we are not about to turn around. (Yes, sir) We are on the move now. (Yes, sir) Yes, we are on the move and no wave of racism can stop us. (Yes, sir) We are on the move now. The burning of our churches will not deter us. (Yes, sir) The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us. (Yes, sir) We are on the move now. (Yes, sir) The beating and killing of our clergymen and young people will not divert us. We are on the move now. (Yes, sir) The wanton release of their known murderers would not discourage us. We are on the move now. (Yes, sir) Like an idea whose time has come, (Yes, sir) not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. (Yes, sir) We are moving to the land of freedom. (Yes, sir) Let us therefore continue our triumphant march (Uh huh) to the realization of the American dream. (Yes, sir) Let us march on segregated housing (Yes, sir) until every ghetto or social and economic depression dissolves, and Negroes and whites live side by side in decent, safe, and sanitary housing. (Yes, sir) Let us march on segregated schools (Let us march, Tell it) until every vestige of segregated and inferior education becomes a thing of the past, and Negroes and whites study side-by-side in the socially-healing context of the classroom. Let us march on poverty (Let us march) until no American parent has to skip a meal so that their children may eat. (Yes, sir) March on poverty (Let us march) until no starved man walks the streets of our cities and towns (Yes, sir) in search of jobs that do not exist. (Yes, sir) Let us march on poverty (Let us march) until wrinkled stomachs in Mississippi are filled, (That's right) and the idle industries of Appalachia are realized and revitalized, and broken lives in sweltering ghettos are mended and remolded. Let us march on ballot boxes, (Let's march) march on ballot boxes until race-baiters disappear from the political arena. Let us march on ballot boxes until the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs (Yes, sir) will be transformed into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens. (Speak, Doctor) Let us march on ballot boxes (Let us march) until the Wallaces of our nation tremble away in silence. Let us march on ballot boxes (Let us march) until we send to our city councils (Yes, sir), state legislatures, (Yes, sir) and the United States Congress, (Yes, sir) men who will not fear to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God. Let us march on ballot boxes (Let us march. March) until brotherhood becomes more than a meaningless word in an opening prayer, but the order of the day on every legislative agenda. Let us march on ballot boxes (Yes) until all over Alabama God's children will be able to walk the earth in decency and honor. There is nothing wrong with marching in this sense. (Yes, sir) The Bible tells us that the mighty men of Joshua merely walked about the walled city of Jericho (Yes) and the barriers to freedom came tumbling down. (Yes, sir) I like that old Negro spiritual, (Yes, sir) "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho." In its simple, yet colorful, depiction (Yes, sir) of that great moment in biblical history, it tells us that: Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, (Tell it) Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, (Yes, sir) And the walls come tumbling down. (Yes, sir. Tell it) Up to the walls of Jericho they marched, spear in hand. (Yes, sir) "Go blow them ramhorns," Joshua cried, "'Cause the battle am in my hand." (Yes, sir) These words I have given you just as they were given us by the unknown, long-dead, dark-skinned originator. (Yes, sir) Some now long-gone black bard bequeathed to posterity these words in ungrammatical form, (Yes, sir) yet with emphatic pertinence for all of us today. (Uh huh) The battle is in our hands. And we can answer with creative nonviolence the call to higher ground to which the new directions of our struggle summons us. (Yes, sir) The road ahead is not altogether a smooth one. (No) There are no broad highways that lead us easily and inevitably to quick solutions. But we must keep going. In the glow of the lamplight on my desk a few nights ago, I gazed again upon the wondrous sign of our times, full of hope and promise of the future. (Uh huh) And I smiled to see in the newspaper photographs of many a decade ago, the faces so bright, so solemn, of our valiant heroes, the people of Montgomery. To this list may be added the names of all those (Yes) who have fought and, yes, died in the nonviolent army of our day: Medgar Evers, (Speak) three civil rights workers in Mississippi last summer, (Uh huh) William Moore, as has already been mentioned, (Yes, sir) the Reverend James Reeb, (Yes, sir) Jimmy Lee Jackson, (Yes, sir) and four little girls in the church of God in Birmingham on Sunday morning. (Yes, sir) But in spite of this, we must go on and be sure that they did not die in vain. (Yes, sir) The pattern of their feet as they walked through Jim Crow barriers in the great stride toward freedom is the thunder of the marching men of Joshua, (Yes, sir) and the world rocks beneath their tread. (Yes, sir) My people, my people, listen. (Yes, sir) The battle is in our hands. (Yes, sir) The battle is in our hands in Mississippi and Alabama and all over the United States. (Yes, sir) I know there is a cry today in Alabama, (Uh huh) we see it in numerous editorials: "When will Martin Luther King, SCLC, SNCC, and all of these civil rights agitators and all of the white clergymen and labor leaders and students and others get out of our community and let Alabama return to normalcy?" But I have a message that I would like to leave with Alabama this evening. (Tell it) That is exactly what we don't want, and we will not allow it to happen, (Yes, sir) for we know that it was normalcy in Marion (Yes, sir) that led to the brutal murder of Jimmy Lee Jackson. (Speak) It was normalcy in Birmingham (Yes) that led to the murder on Sunday morning of four beautiful, unoffending, innocent girls. It was normalcy on Highway 80 (Yes, sir) that led state troopers to use tear gas and horses and billy clubs against unarmed human beings who were simply marching for justice. (Speak, sir) It was normalcy by a cafe in Selma, Alabama, that led to the brutal beating of Reverend James Reeb. It is normalcy all over our country (Yes, sir) which leaves the Negro perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of vast ocean of material prosperity. It is normalcy all over Alabama (Yeah) that prevents the Negro from becoming a registered voter. (Yes) No, we will not allow Alabama (Go ahead) to return to normalcy. [Applause] The only normalcy that we will settle for (Yes, sir) is the normalcy that recognizes the dignity and worth of all of God's children. The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that allows judgment to run down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. (Yes, sir) The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy of brotherhood, the normalcy of true peace, the normalcy of justice. And so as we go away this afternoon, let us go away more than ever before committed to this struggle and committed to nonviolence. I must admit to you that there are still some difficult days ahead. We are still in for a season of suffering in many of the black belt counties of Alabama, many areas of Mississippi, many areas of Louisiana. I must admit to you that there are still jail cells waiting for us, and dark and difficult moments. But if we will go on with the faith that nonviolence and its power can transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows, we will be able to change all of these conditions. And so I plead with you this afternoon as we go ahead: remain committed to nonviolence. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding. We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man. (Yes) I know you are asking today, "How long will it take?" (Speak, sir) Somebody's asking, "How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne?" Somebody's asking, "When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets of Selma and Birmingham and communities all over the South, be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men?" Somebody's asking, "When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely night, (Speak, speak, speak) plucked from weary souls with chains of fear and the manacles of death? How long will justice be crucified, (Speak) and truth bear it?" (Yes, sir) I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, (Yes, sir) however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, (No sir) because "truth crushed to earth will rise again." (Yes, sir) How long? Not long, (Yes, sir) because "no lie can live forever." (Yes, sir) How long? Not long, (All right. How long) because "you shall reap what you sow." (Yes, sir) How long? (How long?) Not long: (Not long) Truth forever on the scaffold, (Speak) Wrong forever on the throne, (Yes, sir) Yet that scaffold sways the future, (Yes, sir) And, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above his own. How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. (Yes, sir) How long? Not long, (Not long) because: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; (Yes, sir) He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; (Yes) He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword; (Yes, sir) His truth is marching on. (Yes, sir) He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; (Speak, sir) He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat. (That's right) O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant my feet! Our God is marching on. (Yeah) Glory, hallelujah! (Yes, sir) Glory, hallelujah! (All right) Glory, hallelujah! Glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on. [Applause] andmoreagain, - ------------------ simon ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2006 #16 **************************** ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------