derdlim
Carlyle and Son
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Posted - 2012.02.13 11:33:00 -
[1] - Quote
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Many years ago, a great Amarrian, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Minmatar slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Minmatar still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Minmatar is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Minmatar lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Minmatar is still languished in the corners of Amarrian society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every Amarrian was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, Minmatar men as well as Amarrian men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that Amarr has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, Amarr has given the Minmatar people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind Amarr of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Minmatar's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Minmatar needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in Amarr until the Minmatar is granted his citizenship rights.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Minmatar community must not lead us to a distrust of all Amarrian people, for many of our Amarrian brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Minmatar is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Minmatar's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Amarrians Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Minmatar in Amarr Prime cannot vote and a Minmatar in Khanid Prime believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Amarr Prime, go back to Mekhios, go back to Radonis, go back to Syrikos V, go back to Ezzara VI, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern planets, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
I will use the funds to help the loyal Minmatar free those from the villainous Amarrians who enslave them. |