Martin Luther King

I almost never contribute to Katy's blog, but I thought there were some things worth noting today. ~ Aaron

On this day in 1968, Martin Luther King was shot and killed by James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel (pictured above) in Memphis. He was there to support a strike by the black sanitation workers. I was not alive then, but I think it's appropriate to honor the life of a remarkable man. Interestingly, King seemed prescient that he would not live to see his dream of racial equality fully realized. The day before he died, he delivered his famous "Mountaintop" speech. In its conclusion, he acknowledged some of the death threats he had received. But he said that he was not concerned. He was not worried.

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!"

That would be his last speech.

link for full text and a recording of the speech


Interestingly, on the night of King's death, Robert F. Kennedy was running for President. He would be killed two months later by an assassin, but on the night of King's death, he was to speaking to a largely black audience in the racially divided city of Cleveland. The chief of police told him not to go out. That was not really bad advice as evidenced by nationwide riots after King's death. But RFK did go out and informed the crowd of King's death. And then he did something strange. He quoted Aeschylus. Now most Americans don't know who Aeschylus is (though I'm sure you recognize him as the Greek poet who wrote the Orestia trilogy). If his remarks were screened by consultants, I'm sure they would have begged him not to say what he did. A reference to Aeschylus is like rhetorical windsurfing--not gonna relate to your average American, let alone a crowd of poverty stricken people in Cleveland. But RFK shot from the hip. In that moment of grief, he said, let me share with you some lines from my favorite poet, Aeschylus.

Even in our own sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.

Bold. Profound. Beautiful. And a pure expression of feeling and grief. Politicians now could use such a dose of sincerity and eloquence as that expressed by King and RFK. And for the rest of us, we can remember that to be at our best, we need merely to be ourselves.

Article from Time by Joe Klein on RFK's speech and political sincerity

NPR story on RFK's speech