Dream

Although his actual birthday would have been celebrated on Saturday were he still living (he would have been 82), our nation celebrates today as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

His most famous speech was, of course, delivered on August 28, 1963 during a civil rights March on Washington, and is usually titled "I Have a Dream." It's kind of a hybrid of speech and sermon, as so many of King's addresses were. Watch it and you can probably tell the point where the speechmaker proclaiming his words steps aside so the preacher can proclaim His Word. King was also a Nobel Peace Prize winner and gave an acceptance speech as well as the Laureate Address upon receiving the award in December 1964. Reading them both is encouraged. An incomplete list that nonetheless offers several different speeches and sermons that are worth reviewing may be found here.

Although the laureate address contains a caricature of defeated Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater that King later might have wished unsaid in line with his more typical habit of assigning blame to actions rather than character, it still ranks near if not at the top of his public speeches. Some of his remarks on the need to match internal or spiritual progress to external technological progress serve as good reminders today as well.

Entertainment news is buzzing with the way host Ricky Gervais skewered entertainer egos at one of the industry's elaborate self-pats on the back last night, the Golden Globe Awards. Gervais signed off with a snarky “And thank you to God for making me an atheist.”

In what I hope matches the spirit of the day, I will offer no response to Mr. Gervais beyond a thank-you to God for not making Martin Luther King, Jr., one.