Its been 50 years since Martin Luther King’s massively inspirational and moving speech. I was watching some of the programmes from the BBC about the speech and Martin Luther King himself. I didn’t really get a chance to blog about it but here’s some great stuff Umair Haque wrote on twitter and fb.
On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, here are 10 points on his legacy and what it still means to us today:
- If MLK was alive today, wonks would tell him a revolution of love was impossible, politicians would ignore him, and pundits would mock him.
- MLK was a great leader. He wasn’t a wannabe. He wasn’t a cowering flunky. He didn’t sell his dream out. He was the real thing.
- So I can’t tell whether its funny or sad to hear glowing praise for MLK from people who surely would have hated him were he alive today.
- It’s amazing to me how America misremembers MLK. As a policy “activist”. Wrong. He wanted a revolution of love.
- MLK didn’t want slightly higher taxes, or one new law. He wanted something bigger: revolution in people’s hearts. A revolution of love.
- So to remember MLK as some kind of policy wonk or activist or lobbyist is laughable. He was more than that. He was a real leader.
- MLK was the kind of leader whose memory tells us: we don’t have much real leadership left today. Just wimps selling out.
- MLK is probably one of the last people in America who called for real institutional change. For that, he was spied on, jailed, and killed.
- MLK didn’t just want an end to segregation. He wanted an end to poverty, war, anger, and greed.
- What MLK’s memory should remind us of is: once we had revolutionaries. Now we have analysts. Because we killed our revolutionaries.
In honor of MLK, I’m going do 7 points on dreams. Enjoy!
- Each and every one must have a dream. That marry who we are with what we want the world to become.
- Your dream is your destination. Without one, you’ll always feel lost.
- There are better dreams, and worse dreams. Better dreams are bigger than just you, and your aspiration.
- Heartbreak doesn’t happen when your dreams don’t come true. It happens when they do.
- Don’t cripple your dreams. With evidence or logic or doubt. Dreams are a kind of magic.
- Dreams are always impossible. And so we must use a force stronger than our minds to ignite them. We must have faith in them.
- Never step on people’s dreams. They’ll rarely forgive you. Always lift people towards their dreams. They’ll love you for it.
