Martin’s Dream or Donald’s Nightmare

Martin’s Dream or Trump’s Nightmare

January 15 would have been the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 95^th birthday. The Civil Rights icon and American prophet offered our nation a dream of freedom, inclusion, and equality. Donald Trump, the nation’s 45^th president has offered the nation a nightmare of nihilistic demolition and authoritarianism.

Martin called for the repudiation of physical violence. Donald insisted on “fighting like hell.”

Don’t take my word for it. Compare Martin’s “I Have a Dream” speech with Donald’s insurrection speech. Both speeches were delivered in Washington D. C. – King at the Lincoln Memorial, Trump from the Ellipse, near the White House.

Words from Trump

“We will never give up, we will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”

“Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with: We will stop the steal.”

A major theme of Trump’s speech: “Fight for Trump!”

“If they don’t fight, we have to primary the hell out of the ones that don’t fight,” Trump said. “You primary them. We’re going to let you know who they are.”

“If you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

There are lines of the speech that seem to suggest a call for the crowd to takes matters into their own hands to correct this injustice through a more active or violent approach:

• “We will not let them silence your voices. We’re not going to let it happen. Not going to let it happen.”

• “Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.”

• “That’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing. We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”

• “When you catch somebody in a fraud, you’re allowed to go by very different rules.”

• “This is a time for strength…. It’s all part of the comprehensive assault on our democracy and the American people to finally standing up and saying, ‘No.’ This crowd is again a testament to it.”

• “We will not be intimidated into accepting the hoaxes and the lies that we’ve been forced to believe over the past several weeks. We’ve amassed overwhelming evidence about a fake election.”

• “We’re going to see whether or not we have great and courageous leaders or whether or not we have leaders that should be ashamed of themselves throughout history, throughout eternity, they’ll be ashamed. And you know what? If they do the wrong thing, we should never ever forget that they did. Never forget. We should never ever forget.”

Words from Martin

“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. 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 lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”

“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 a 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.”

• “Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.
• 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 lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”
• “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. 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 every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom to 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! 

Will we choose Martin’s dream or Donald’s nightmare?