![]() ![]() And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.īut I wouldn't stop there. I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. I would come on up even to 1863, and watch a vacillating president by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church in Wittenberg.īut I wouldn't stop there. I would even go by the way that the man for whom I'm named had his habitat. I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and esthetic life of man. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality.īut I wouldn't stop there. I would move on by Greece, and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there. ![]() Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world.Īs you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of general and panoramic view of the whole human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?" - I would take my mental flight by Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow. I'm delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. And Ralph is the best friend that I have in the world. It's always good to have your closest friend and associate say something good about you. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. Write to IPM re: copyright permission for use of words and images of Martin Luther King, Jr. License to reproduce this speech granted by Intellectual Properties Management, 1579-F Monroe Drive, Suite 235, Atlanta, Georgia 30324, as manager for the King Estate. delivered this speech in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on Apthe day before he was assassinated. Why is it that we depend so much upon art? Is it a form of escape, of stimulation? If you are directly in contact with nature if you watch the movement of a bird on the wing, see the beauty of every movement of the sky, watch the shadows on the hills or the beauty on the face of another, do you think you will want to go to any museum to look at any picture? Perhaps it is because you do not know how to look at all the things about you that you resort to some form of drug to stimulate you to see better.“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” by Dr. ![]() We quote endlessly from other people’s ideas and think and talk a great deal about art. We read a great many books, go to a great many museums and concerts, watch television and have many other entertainments. ![]() Having lost touch with nature we naturally tend to develop intellectual capacities. I don’t know if you have noticed how few of us look at a sunrise or a sunset or the moonlight or the reflection of light on water. Civilisation is tending more and more towards large cities we are becoming more and more an urban people, living in crowded apartments and having very little space even to look at the sky of an evening and morning, and therefore we are losing touch with a great deal of beauty. If your eyes are blinded with your worries, you cannot see the beauty of the sunset. “Now, to look is one of the most difficult things in life – or to listen – to look and listen are the same. ![]()
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