Recently Written 01/21/08 - (2)
The Minister with a Dream This day of tributes, testimonials, and prayers, By local, state, and federal dignitaries, Those who stood beside the minister with a dream — Wilkins, Farmer, Young, Abernathy, Jackson — And those who would have, But for being born too late (if embraced in his legacy)... A day of constantly spooling grainy TV footage Highlighting the Demosthenes of Ebenezer Baptist Preaching, marching, enduring incarcerations, And always holding forth, civilly disobedient, Haranguing, begging a racially segregated nation To cast aside its shackles, whips, nooses, Burn its KKK robes and hoods, Tear down the "Whites Only" and "Coloreds Only" signs, Dispense with the "boy" denigrations, Jim Crow poll taxes, "Bull" Connor fire hoses and dogs, The vicious strategies of a "closed society," Calculated to exclude the "nigra" from equal "equality." Tonight, I reflect on how, forty years ago, That galvanizing agent of change in bigoted America Was assassinated by a redneck, while pacing a balcony At the Lorraine Motel, in Memphis, Tennessee, Preparing to march for the rights of garbage collectors, To have their union recognized, hold their heads high. And I meditate on how far we've come, Only to realize that my country is still deluding itself, Insisting that its Emmett Tills were never murdered, That its cotton plantations weren't gardens of evil, And that the Founding Fathers never owned "servants," Never signed slavery into its Constitution.
01/21/08 - (2)
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