Obama and King
Today is Martin Luther King Jnr day in America - a national holiday. Yesterday, Barack Obama gave a speech in King’s old church in Atlanta. Brave move. The comparisons between King and Obama are few, except for them both being trailblazers because of their ethnicity. But I don’t want to dwell on that. I want to look at the speech.
It was fantastic. Obama’s delivery is not quite at King’s level of sublime brilliance - Obama has not yet been to the Mountaintop - but he is a fine speaker. The text of the speech itself is, however, wonderful. An intelligent fusion of God and campaigning, of religion and nation. It doesn’t speak down to its listeners; it weaves veiled references to King, the civil rights movement he led, and the God he served throughout. It uses the fall of the walls of Jericho to make a subliminal reference towards the Joshua-like Obama, through the surrogate of King. It buys into King’s trademark Southern minister style. It is a brilliant piece of work for January in a presidential campaign. This time next year, I wonder what Obama’s inauguration might be like.
It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we begin. It is why the walls in that room began to crack and shake.
And if they can shake in that room, they can shake in Atlanta.
And if they can shake in Atlanta, they can shake in Georgia.
And if they can shake in Georgia, they can shake all across America. And if enough of our voices join together; we can bring those walls tumbling down. The walls of Jericho can finally come tumbling down. That is our hope - but only if we pray together, and work together, and march together.
Brothers and sisters, we cannot walk alone.
In the struggle for peace and justice, we cannot walk alone.
In the struggle for opportunity and equality, we cannot walk alone
In the struggle to heal this nation and repair this world, we cannot walk alone.
So I ask you to walk with me, and march with me, and join your voice with mine, and together we will sing the song that tears down the walls that divide us, and lift up an America that is truly indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all. May God bless the memory of the great pastor of this church, and may God bless the United States of America.
Ah, you found a YouTube link, thank you! I was holding off reading that speech until I could hear him deliver it, he truly is a great orator.
Me and 220,000 others. Obama gets YouTube in a way few others seem to.