Fifty Years Ago Today... The Dream

Hello again ATS!

Fifty years ago today Martin Luther King Jr stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington DC and spoke those immortal and deeply meaningful words I have a dream...

Much has been said about those words in the intervening years - and about the man who spoke them, who tragically met his end at the hands of a sniper some four and a half years after the above speech.

Obviously Dr King was speaking specifically of race and racial tensions on those steps... tensions that needed to be addressed... tensions which are beginning to rear their ugliness increasingly, once again, today. But there is so much more to be found in his words than just a dialogue about the racial divide...

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.

Those above words quite possibly ring more true, and more foreboding than they did back in 1963... and they no longer apply only to people of color.

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 jail 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....

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.

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, 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.

And 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 snow-capped 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!

And when this happens, 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!"

Some may choose to spite me for selecting passages that are not particular to the racial struggle. To them I say that, while I do understand that we are not where we need to be in this nation regarding race - we are increasingly all seen by our government as second class citizens. Economics is the divisive weapon and skin color, though relevant still, is increasingly less important to those who wish to abuse others than it used to be.

Now ones credit score and income level is just as much an issue of bias as ones race.

With the current political climate and the excesses of the Federal government, which become increasingly alarming with every passing month... I offer the notion that Dr Kings speech and his words, though reflective of a dark chapter of our history, also speak very much to a new brand of hate and abuse...

A new paradigm of marginalization... Class warfare.

I never got the whole seeing the credit score as discrimination. The credit score is tied to how good you are at paying your bills and how much you owe. So if you owe lots of money to lots of people someone should give you something of theirs on credit even though they know you will not be able to pay for it?
It looks to me like people who own things and businesses are the bad guys no matter what. If they give credit out to people who can't pay then they are taking advantage of them, this also lowers the responsibility of the person asking for credit and basically says they are too dumb to know what's good for them. But if the creditor says they don't have enough good credit to get something then its "class warfare".
The main problem is entitlement and stupid people think they are entitled to everything. Making bad choices and having a hard life does not pay the bills or put money in your account. Class warfare, if you want to call it that is mainly carried out by the lower classes.

reply to post by Superhans


In some cases the borrower is at fault by borrowing under fraudulent terms to be sure... either lying about resources or borrowing with the absolute intention of defaulting.

Still, once we table that then we are left with a reality... there are lenders who engage in predatory practices directly marketed to those high risk patrons. There are actually numerous ways that lenders game this system to their advantage and make a LOT of money from it. Lending to a nearly guaranteed default is a very robust industry that yields unfathomably high interest rates while payments are being made, seizure or foreclosure on the purchased items one default occurs AND the ability to package the high risk credit lines into exotics or derivatives which then trade at highly inflated levels.

While I am aware that there are some fairly recent consumer protection laws, I am not up to speed upon when they took hold or what they cover. I do know that the local "payday" loan places around here all disappeared at some point in the past six months - something I assume to be a consequence of consumer protections. But the "title pawn" facilities still are extant. Regarding these:

The thing that makes car title loans a bad idea is the incredibly high interest rate associated with them. Many states have banned them because of the fact that car title loans have been grouped into the predatory lending category. Their interest rates are even higher than credit card companies who take advantage of those with bad credit. If you think rates of 25% APR are high, imagine rates of 250%. Keep in mind that a monthly interest rate of 25% equals 300% APR. If you're paying $400 a month interest only on a $3,000 loan, after 7 months you will have paid $2,800, which is almost the principle balance, while still owing the full, original $3,000. Read the fine print and think carefully before attempting to get any kind of car title loan. The high interest rates are not worth, and in most cases, you would be better off getting a loan from a friend or family member.

Source

Just searching "predatory lending 2013" yields a myriad of results from the above mentioned payday loan operations ( as I just discovered illegal in 15 states ) and also the fact that major banks are beginning to emulate the practice, predatory mortgage lending, predatory auto loan lending, etc.

To shrug it all off as the fault of the consumer is a bit naive IMO as the banks, themselves, seem to be more than happy to oblige bad practices. I can't blame a starving man for wanting a sandwich - but I can blame the guy who offers to enslave the starving man in exchange for one.

reply to post by Hefficide


Kind of the point i was making. They give the money and people are suddenly too stupid to know better and the lenders are being "predatory". But if they don't lend the money then they are discriminating. Its lose lose to those with the money.

reply to post by Hefficide


Good day Heff,

Another excellent thread

I think I will agree with the overall premise of your post. Dr. King and his words spoke to more than just racial divide. Please find the following powerful quotes:

One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Wow, this certain applies to contemporary issues would it not?

And this one is great to:

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I think Dr. Kings focus and concern touched on many major aspects of American/Western society and the above excerpts certainly make constructive criticisms of personal freedoms/rights and addressing the roots of economic problems.

I think his words have important bearing on today's issues as they were on the issues back then.