I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

The most important reason to elect Obama is not his stance on particular issues. It is because he demonstrates what the potential of political discourse could really be.

Thank you for posting the full text of the speech. I also look forward to the full text of Clinton's and McCain's speeches as well.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/04/mccain-voted-against-mlk-day-at-almost-50-years-of-age/

by the way, John McCain voted against the MLK Holiday.

I greatly prefer his words over the absence of them.

It's time we embrace and teach this aspect of his legacy as well, so that one day, we might recognize that anger and disappointment are not unpatriotic emotions. And that Dissent is the foundation upon which this country was created. It is inseparable from Democracy, and is our great legacy.

I agree. There's no way to keep fading everything - let's really look at who we are, where we've been and where it is we think we want to go because apparently there is huge disconnect between what people will say face to face and what they will admit publicly and personally, I'm sick of the double, triple, quadruple standards.

But not right now - he has time when he has the nomination and then when he's elected. If he can move us off this starting line we've been stuck on since 1865, then maybe we can make some progress. We've gone backwards now for about 10 years in all areas of human rights - all areas and we are not angels, we are not saints, we are not somehow inherently more generous, kind and giving and tolerant than people in other countries.

The problem here is American Exceptionalism - this Jerusalem on the Hill attitude is what kills us. We have to be honest with ourselves.

Hillary thought she would take the express elevator to the top. That machine got stuck at 2nd floor on super tuesday.

Obama decided to take the staircase to the top. Admittedly, it was Hard Work and yet it is showing Success.

That's how I see this primary.

Why is "Live Up" in quotes in title?

Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8ozQz0qe3c

John McCain admitting that he didn't know about MLK at 47 yrs of age!

Saying Dr. King had a dream but "it took a president to get it done" is not showing respect for Dr. King. She is totally disingenuous and someone like her or McCain who voted against a MLK holiday speaking about MLK is disgraceful.

Notice the use of racial guilt in Obama's speech. He reminds America of how badly it treated black people. This is the political style of Jesse Jackson and others who used guilt as a weapon.

Racial guilt? We must have been reading two different speeches. I don't see how it's racial guilt to point out the actual history of this country and the conditions facing the black sanitation workers on whose behalf MLK campaigned.

These people were not victims. In striking for better working conditions and a better life, they eschewed the victim role, facing down violence and scorn to achieve their goals. Likewise, Obama's speech is the opposite of victimology because it calls for people to work toward the causes of economic and racial justice. He hardly equates voting for him with bring racial justice to this country. It's a struggle we're all in together.

Thank you for posting the entire speech. Reading the remembrances of MLK today, here and elsewhere, has made me cry, for what was lost and for how far we still have to go. But I feel hope for my country, too. It's a young hope, a feeling I haven't really experienced in years, but it keeps growing.

To Otto F, you talk about "racial guilt" as though the struggles of the civil rights movement are ancient history. It has only been 40 years. That's within my lifetime. If it's not within yours, then your parents. These events shaped all of us - white, black, brown.

I don't suffer "white guilt," but I would be a fool not to recognize white privilege. My comfortable, well-educated middle class existence stems directly from my parents' ability to comfortably raise a family, which stems directly from my grand-fathers' ability to send their children to college, even though they themselves had not gone to college. For generations, my family had opportunities and stability that were systematically denied to black families throughout most of the 20th century.

The reality of that history impacts us today, which is why MLK fought for both racial justice and economic justice. They are intimately connected. Obama understands that.

"Obama also emphasized an oft-overlooked aspect of King's legacy -- his battle for economic justice -- and put it in the context of our present problems."

Thank you Greg! You got it: the oft-overlooked aspect of King's legacy.... Most have never got it!
(King's best speech(for me) ever was at Stanford in the mid sixties dealt with economics. Yes it would put Obama to shame. If you can find a link to that one you shall be a hero forever.)

Promise will not be a bit harsh, until next time.

What bull, OttoF! If anybody has tried to play an "entitlement" card in this primary, it's been HRC, with her overt invocations to elect "the first woman president." And yet she's been given a complete pass on this! Can you imagine the uproar if Obama said anything remotely comparable? You parse his calls for unity into something they're not and ignore HRC's utterly gender-based appeals.

Sorry, I'd prefer to simply praise both Democratic candidates on this day, but your comments are just too much...something.

Take a look at MLK's speech and compare with Rev. Wright and see if they are anywhere near the same context. It was a warning that America needs to live up to his moral responsibilites rather than damning America to hell. The distinction is not a small one. It is of both substance and delivery.

"You know, Jesus reminded us in a magnificent parable one day that a man went to Hell because he didn't see the poor. And his name was Dives. There was a man by the name of Lazarus who came daily to his gate in need of the basic necessities of life. Dives didn't do anything about it. He ended up going to Hell.

But there is nothing in that parable that says that Dives went to Hell because he was rich. Jesus never made a universal indictment against all wealth. It is true that one day a rich young ruler came before him talking about eternal life. And he advised him to sell all. But in that instance Jesus was prescribing individual surgery, and not setting forth a universal diagnosis.

If you will go on and read that parable in all of its dimensions, and all of its symbolism, you will remember that a conversation took place between Heaven and Hell. And on the other end of that long distance call between heaven and Hell was Abraham in Heaven talking to Dives in Hell. It wasn't a millionaire in Hell talking with a multimillionaire in heaven. Dives didn't go to Hell because he was rich. His wealth was an opportunity to bridge the gulf that separated him from his brother Lazarus.

Dives went to Hell because he passed by Lazarus every day, but he never really saw him. Dives went to Hell because he allowed Lazarus to become invisible. Dives went to Hell because he allowed the means by which he lived to outdistance the ends for which he lived. Dives went to Hell because he maximized the minimum, and minimized the maximum. Dives finally went to Hell because he wanted to be a conscientious objector in the war against poverty.

And I come by here to say that America too is going to Hell, if we don't use her wealth. If America does not use her vast resources of wealth to end poverty, to make it possible for all of God's children to have the basic necessities of life, she too will go to Hell. I will hear America through her historians years and years to come saying, "We built gigantic buildings to kiss the sky. We build gargantuan bridges to span the seas. Through our spaceships we were able to carve highways through the stratosphere. Through our airplanes we were able to dwarf distance and place time in chains. Through our submarines we were able to penetrate oceanic depths."

But it seems that I can hear the God of the universe saying, "even though you've done all of that, I was hungry and you fed me not. I was naked and ye clothed me not. The children of my sons and daughters were in need of economic security, and you didn't provide for them. So you cannot enter the kingdom of greatness." This may well be the indictment on America that says in Memphis to the mayor, to the power structure, "If you do it unto the least of these my brethren, you do it unto me."…

Now you're doing something else here. You are highlighting the economic issues. You are going beyond purely civil rights to questions of human rights. That is distinct…

Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know now, that it isn't enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn't have enough money to buy a hamburger? What does it profit a man to be able to eat at the swankest integrated restaurant when he doesn't even earn enough money to take his wife out to dine? What does it profit one to have access to the hotels of our cities, and the hotels of our highways, when we don't earn enough money to take our family on a vacation? What does it profit one to be able to attend an integrated school, when he doesn't earn enough money to buy his children school clothes?"

Let’s bend that arc toward justice.

Let’s bend that arc toward opportunity.

Let’s bend that arc toward prosperity for all.

And let's do it by sitting quietly in a pew in front of Rev. Wright for twenty years. Of course, we all believe Obama when he says that he would have left the Church except that Rev. Wright was retiring.

Too often Obama's actions do not match his rhetoric.

He put his own political advantage above the rights of the Michigan and Florida voters to be heard and now wants to claim the MLK mantle.

What galls me about Hillary's talk of Lyndon Johnson's importance to the civil rights movement, in addition to Martin Luther King's, is the way she frames it and what that frame implies.

"I would point to the fact that that Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the President before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done. That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became a real in people's lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it, and actually got it accomplished."

This seems to suggest that LBJ was the one who did the heavy lifting in the advancement of civil rights in this country.

It suggests that King's activism, his marches, his sit-ins, his boycotts, his rallies- that none of that was as hard as the legislation that Johnson pushed through Congress and signed. Because that's what really 'got it done.'

It denigrates all of the people who took to the streets during the Civil Rights Movement, because it implies that all they did was inspire Congress to be more receptive to Johnson's legislation. This is wrong. They did it. They fought the oppression of segregation, and the victory over it was their victory.

Johnson was a foot soldier, like all the legislators who crafted the Civil Rights Act. But King was the leader of that army.

You are intentional mixing up what both Obama said and I corrected you on. Obama "admitted" that he had heard past remarks that others would think controversial. He has stated that he was NOT in the church when the god damn america, sermon occurred.

You earlier tried to imply that Obama has somehow backtracked on his statements when you omitted what he ACTUALLY said just before the place you begin quoting from:

"Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes."

That does NOT translate into him now admitting that he was in the church to hear any of the sermons that have been so hotly debated and criticized.

Somewhere along the US Political Timelime there is going to be a phase of “Frikk You Whitey it’s our turn in Office now” from “A Black Guy”
A 20-year span should take care of it
This necessary cathartic process will be part of the final historical public breakthrough to World Race Emancipation
Good!
The US is embracing itself for this and
(Some) are bracing themselves for a significantly different way of doing things (Fuzzy Logic?)
Is it logic or is it fuzzy logic?
It’s likely this necessary catharsis will run a lot less than 20years, thanks to Uniracial appreciations of modern life.
But rectifying some lagging ongoing social/economic disparities has to be played out , to resolve to
a real national unity.

And that means “We Whitey” has to shut the frikk up for a while
Because despite the fact that law has addressed a lot of racially abusive bias, racism is still to a degree in effect as an economic tool of disparity, to the benefit of Whitey
And, for victims of racism, memories of past atrocities need purging.
Of course “Poor racist Whitey” was never the sole perpetrator in this nonjust economic model, which in reality , linked to colonialism, probably paid for the industrial and technological revolutions worldwide that will benefit us all in the future
But Poor democratically voting Whitey was and remains ongoing complicit.
Until the next federal election?

But in truth, for the most part, like all of history, a privileged few ‘Super Whiteys” benefited exponentially, through political, social and financial manipulations, such as racism and patriotism fervour and other artificial (but made lawful) wealth delivering devices
But now the, behind the scenes financial players cant dupe the masses anymore
It is not just implausible, it is impossible!
no duping all of the people some of the time anymore
Even media moguls are feeling and looking like they are about to be cast adrift
It’ll feel a bit odd not getting bullshit from Rupert anymone!
Like Billions, I’ve been farce media opiated for so long,
They reported
We finally are deciding
Read on

I don’t know how I’ll begin to think again
It has worked nicely though, for say the last 50 years
I’m past 50
Toxic Busy is where we all are
It has worked.
Up until recently!
Now Black, White and Coloured and all US people are about to be in the game as equals
“Privileged Whitey Secular Leadership Group” has taken too much for too long.
Walls are coming down all over the world
No wall is strong enough to hold a raging tide
The tide must be understood
Or the fool builds future grave costs on jeopardy sand

Too many Global uprisings are thriving and aware of the global Disparity Economic Model.
No US government or security intelligence can continue to sustain paying the premium for this outdated crazy nostalgic model, which continues to consume huge resources for the benefit of a masterful few.

The Camels, The Straws The Breaking Backs are all reinvigorated
Differently though! More informed now!
People of different skin colours and cultures, for a few years have known this is inexorably happening.
And it is happening
The political and big business status quo spin and National Patriot Line is faltering to collapse.
Slick devices and editing efficacy cannot hold the tide anymore
There is ongoing historical grievance redress needed to prevent catastrophic economic and social breakdown.
No more Jizzy Wizzy market instruments are going to do it.

ONCE UPON A TIME

If there is not an accepted social and economic catharsis period in the US and pointed internationally,
and also an accompanying change to a new configured, more equitable economic and social justice model, with new better-regulated market manipulation machinery and instrumentation, the following mild outcome is likely ready to happen

“Old Faithful Simpsons’Beer and circus pill” will run irreversibly dry
And Serious Social and Economic Meltdown. China Syndrome
Will likely become the next and final episode in US reality TV

And it will touch all of us
100 big guys’ purse strings will late loosen, but too late to save the day, the year, and the decade
They’ll go down with all of us.

But here comes John Wayne he’s with Martin Luther King
Relax _
Hopefully a smoother transition than this will happen
Obama is going to get the vote of “Waked up Whitey”

Real Participation in the Global Deracism’d market culture is our last hope to remain forward and significant
Drop the Middle East subsidy
This will really get some constructive lack of pre-emptive strike dialogue happening, once and for all
The military is dead as an economic benefit
No more McCain or Hillary facade for US all
Obama will win the next US election because we all know he’s the future
“Bite the bullet”man
Black? Sure, Christian? Probably, Muslim? Probably not,
Jewish? Probably definitely not, but possibly maybe
Globally inclusive and decent? Perceivably
So he’ll get the majority vote
A fresh new change closer to Jefferson, Franklin, and the equality of King
Maybe a great new age?
Not withstanding the fact that global economic disparity is still what sustains the privileges of the entire western world.

So onto a new sustainable economic model
Are there any free thinking intelligent minds up for this noble deed?
Smart excited and ready to go when the present irresistible disparity model is ‘Spent”totally expired of course that is!
And it’s nearly expired into incredibility now.

A change for the better?
We are running out of dirty smelly (thank you for the memories) oil
And we better get thinking about friendly alternatives now
And millions of Americans are
Paint the top of all aeroplanes solar black, they fly right side up in the sun most of the time don’t they?
Balance an egg on a spoon for awhile longer?

A united US beyond racism is required economically, socially and
Just because it’s the right thing to do.
It’s time for the move toward interesting healthy Diversity
And this diversity will inevitably make secularism its tedious servant
Secular oppression will be nothing more than a personal voluntary closet

Obama will find it easier to unite White with Black and all
With exception of the artificially sustained secular-ites perhaps
But of course even they might spend their ill gottens’ reluctantly profusely to get out of this mire for a while.
But they can’t pull the wool over US anymore
Not when Big Momma’s rattling in her very bones

The US with it’s rational thinking Global US friends (not just bloody allies)
And other new acquaints and fellow citizens of the World,
Are going to say: No thank You to Secular McCain or hegemonious Hillary
No thank you.

The world needs a US that is in reality a leader in human rights
The world wants a US that is in reality a comprehensive Leading Operative for a new standard of global decency and a new much more equitable economic model
An enlightened socially diverse one, that can easily lose reliance on tragedy, disparity, hunger and conflict
Information Asymmetry is Dead
Trust me I’ll trust you
Time to wake to 21st century Non Terrorism
Time to Change the way we look to see differences in culture as exciting rather than something to fear
It ain’t that hard pardtner

The World wants a US that will stand up in the United Nations, not stand up as the United Nations
The World needs a US that knows Texas is a future thinking State, not a 1963 state of mind.
And the US needs to be respected again by the rest of the world
Who have much to be grateful to America for
Very much.
And anybody or State or religion that hates America, should piss off and have a rethink.

The US voters know that Obama will bring a reason to the United Nations that will quickly benefit US citizens through accord rather than thuggery and political old ally trade

So we are not as dopey and retarded, as the Whitehouse would have us behave.
The goodies versus baddies overview which has successfully fuelled the US mothership for so long really has crumbled into a stall
The heavy secular leadership days are over
Last drinks yadi yada. bla bla
Everyone knows the artificially sustained privileged and their failing propoganderists are under heavy siege.
They reported it.
We have decided it.
And with nothing more than time and truth
And the truth is
That lies and spin and edit and econofact tunnelling and devices such as pseudo patriotism and incited racism, just wont cut it anymore, no matter how slick the spin.

Don’t misread the tenor of this comment
I am fair Guy.
Very positive White Guy
First I try to be Human and Decent and Acknowledging
Perhaps a new majority of forward thinking Americans
Will win out and reclaim the US respectability
It is “TheBlackGuy”s turn
Leave your weapons at the door cowboys
Give him a go
Bring on a better playing field, a field of excitement, and not a field of lies and cheap trick expensive war subsidies for non-believers.

The “chapter of catharsis” is needed to get to the next phase of collective humanity to a fresh healthy global Thrive
Technology has given us a better lifestyle opportunity
1 to 15 ratio man to machine
A simple set of more solid and transparent Global Economic protocols is enough to promote global economic growth, virtually indefinitely
And let’s not miss the point again
What is economic growth for?
Retirement? Or improved quality of life?
Gain can be made inevitable through reversing the tendency to make law busy and inaccessible to virtually all but those who make it.
This is ridiculously simple and obvious
But like water and bread
More can be made of it

The world will not anymore be duped by dubious financial market instruments shifting the honest daily productivity value of billions of decent honest people, to a few masterful maleficents, in a whiff
The new known fundamental reality is
There can be no Recession in reality ever again
Only in the financial cyber market to its own peril if it renders itself so cliqued and foolish that it gets thrown out as a paraih pile of refuse by the Real World

Not withstanding God willing the rain stops, the sunshine stops and the fields stop growing food to harvest with our remote control computer activated pods! state of the art of course

So time to wrestle a bit of reality into the “Holders of Market Device Levers”
Disabuse them of their beliefs that their Dollar is the only one we will permanently behold to
This Jizzy Wizzy dollar might end up on the scrap heap if the lack of integrity I’m talking about continues on for much longer.
What’s the price of gold?
Who cares it’s too heavy
Give me an ocean of fish in clean water, wheat from the fields
And some good American values to go with it
I’ll survive happily on that
Until the Beatup Negative Geared Defensive Economy is exhausted and dragged kicking and screaming reluctantly into a better healthier more satisfying lifestyle for everyone.
One man now does the job that 15 men were required for, prior to the computer age
Somethimgs sucking the fruits of that advance away

Go figure

Yibidee yibbida ~