Do you think he knew?
Do you think he had any idea?
Or was he just Showing Up for his Life
And doing what was before him to do?

Do you think the Legend is true that he started speaking
And MAHALIA JACKSON standing by said, “Tell ’em about the Dream, MARTIN?”
Or was that what he planned to say?

I remember being in High School,
And a TeamMate in the Forensics Society
was watching a replay of the speech
on the television set in the Forensics Room.
It was Black and White.
So was he.
He was a good speaker, grooming for Law School, unemotional —
at times he even seemed cold.
He sat next to me
And he began to sob uncontrollably.
I asked him what was wrong.
He gestured toward the television,
“He…
This …was So GREAT!
Oh God…
What He could have Done…
But they stopped him!!!”

Some years later,
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.’s Birthday was declared a Federal Holiday.
The first such Holiday to Honor specifically a Person of Color.
The first such Holiday to Honor a Private Citizen.
So effective was his March on Washington that 47 years later, to the day, GLENN BECK would attempt to co-opt the Civil Rights Movement with a March of Overprivileged White People.

Declared a Federal Holiday in 1983, it took until the year 2000 for all fifty states to recognize it,
Utah being dead last.

But the True Civil Rights Movement took place in a time when the Lessons of Vietnam
rang loudly in our ears
And before people like DAN QUAYLE and SARAH PALIN were seriously considered for Executive Positions in our Government.
It was before preemptive strikes in the name of Democracy…

A Man, physically quite small,
Spoke Out for what he Believed
And tried to Help People
He walked in Faith with the Courage of his Convictions to guide him
To Heal a World very much in need

What do you Believe?
Who will you Help today?
Will you walk in Faith with the Courage of your Convictions
To Heal a World very much in need?

Do you know that your acting upon the answers to these Questions
Has the Power to Change the Course of History?

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