I Have a Dream

Happy Martin Luther King Junior Day!

It seems MLK's "I Have Dream" speech is always ranked the best speech in modern American history. And as somebody who has spent the past two plus years studying rhetoric, I concur. Here we have a true orator who was able to use discourse and non violent civil disobedience to ignite a massive civil rights movement in the United States.



We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. 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 quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
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And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

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."