I may be wrong, but just in case we have another abridged King birthday with a looping of “I Have A Dream,” I want to share my favorite quote by Dr. King from his sermon “Time to Break Silence” which was delivered at the Riverside Church in New York City April 4, 1967. If we act on these words, we can certainly move closer to the beloved community or towards the key word – “change.” Dr. King would’ve been 80 years old today.
“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be contantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway.”
To read and/or listen to the complete address, visit the American Rhetoric website.