Miniver Cheevy

For many years now, I've honoured the holiday by circulating Dr King's words with a little comment of my own about why I think they're important to revisit. Still true.

I Have a Dream
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
I've Been to the Mountaintop

This year, with the extraordinary confluence of us celebrating Dr King's birthday the day before we inaugurate our first Black president, an additional thought.

Dr King gave that last speech the day before an assassin's bullet took him from us. He ended his speech by recognizing the threats against him but saying ...

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!

In case you don't get the reference, I've got Deuteronomy 34:1-5 (JPS 1917) handy:

And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land, even Gilead as far as Dan; and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah as far as the hinder sea; and the South, and the Plain, even the valley of Jericho the city of palm-trees, as far as Zoar. And the LORD said unto him: “This is the land which I swore unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying: I will give it unto thy seed; I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.” So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.

Moses sees the Promised Land but does not enter it. Then Moses' successor Joshua and the Israelites go on to face a number of struggles when they do. (You may recognize the name “Jericho.”)

Barack Obama referenced both Dr King and the story of Moses at the mountaintop a year ago, in a speech commemorating the voting rights march in Selma.

I'm here because somebody marched. I'm here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants. I thank the Moses generation; but we've got to remember, now, that Joshua still had a job to do. As great as Moses was, despite all that he did, leading a people out of bondage, he didn't cross over the river to see the Promised Land. God told him your job is done. You'll see it. You'll be at the mountain top and you can see what I've promised. What I've promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You will see that I've fulfilled that promise but you won't go there.

We're going to leave it to the Joshua generation to make sure it happens. There are still battles that need to be fought; some rivers that need to be crossed. Like Moses, the task was passed on to those who might not have been as deserving, might not have been as courageous, find themselves in front of the risks that their parents and grandparents and great grandparents had taken. That doesn't mean that they don't still have a burden to shoulder, that they don't have some responsibilities. The previous generation, the Moses generation, pointed the way. They took us 90% of the way there. We still got that 10% in order to cross over to the other side. So the question, I guess, that I have today is what's called of us in this Joshua generation?

I've seen a number of commentators calling tomorrow “Dr King's dream fulfilled.” The President-Elect knows better. Tomorrow is, as I've said before, a great victory, no doubt. But calling it “Dr King's dream fulfilled” is far too strong. Fulfilled will be when inaugurating a Black woman as President is ordinary. Between here and there is the work of the Joshua generation, and there's plenty of it to do.

Go back to those first few links and have a look at what Dr King had to say and I believe you'll agree.

Labels: kulturkamph, racism