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January 18, 1999 « Thread Started on Apr 28, 2007, 11:38am »

Daily newsbrief journal for April 2007, also see http://www.usdemocrats.com/brief for a global 100-page perpetual brief and follow twitter @usdemocrats


January 18, 1999 « Thread Started on Apr 28, 2007, 11:38am »

Postby admin » Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:41 am

January 18, 1999 « Thread Started on Apr 28, 2007, 11:38am » --------------------------------------------------------------------------------On Martin Luther King Day Prepared Remarks of Senator Paul Wellstone On Martin Luther King Day January 18, 1999 It was just over three decades ago, when "Early morning, April 4, "A shot [rang] out in the Memphis sky" that took from us the man who came "In the name of love." 1/ Today, we honor the memory of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. when we honor that in which he believed. We keep faith today with our fallen hero when we honor that for which he fought. We honor him today when we speak of freedom, when we speak of justice, and when we speak of love. We venerate him today when we fight violence, when we fight war, and when we fight intolerance. We revere him when we continue to dream. And today, three decades after his death, we honor Martin Luther King when we speak of that for which he fought in the last years of his life. We venerate him when we continue as he did to speak of economic justice, when we continue as he did to fight poverty. We revere him when we recall his words in his last presidential address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which he entitled "Where Do We Go from Here." In that address, when Martin Luther King spoke of where we go from here, he said: [L]et us go out with a "divine dissatisfaction.". . . Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort and the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice. . . . Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heaps of history, and every family is living in a decent sanitary home. . . . Let us be dissatisfied [until] men will recognize that out of one blood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth. It has been more than three decades since Martin Luther King left us, but we still have a long way to go from here. Right here in Minnesota, the median family income of African American households was only 71 percent of the state average in 1980. But in 1990, it had fallen to only 55 percent. It has been nearly four centuries since settlers brought men in irons to these shores, but we still have a long way to go from here. Here in Minnesota, half of African American children live in poverty. It has been a century and a third since this Nation adopted the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to its fundamental charter, in which this Nation promised itself that every citizen — no matter what "race, color, or previous condition of servitude" — shall have the equal protection of the laws, shall have the same right to vote, and shall be forever free, but we still have a long way to go from here. In the Twin Cities, the poverty rate among African Americans rose from 26 percent in 1980 to 37 percent in 1990. It has been two and twenty years since the fourth of July day when the President gave Martin Luther King the posthumous award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the citation of which stated in part: "[H]e continued to his last days to strive for a world where the poorest and humblest among us could enjoy the fulfillment of the promises of our founding fathers." And we still have a long way to go from here. In Minnesota, African Americans are 2-1/2 times less likely to own their own home as white Minnesotans. It has been 35 years since "they passed a law in ’64 "To give those who ain’t got a little more, "But it only goes so far "Because the law don’t change another’s mind "When all it sees at the hiring time "Is the line on the color bar" 2/ And we still have a long way to go from here. In Minnesota, African Americans are twice as likely as average to be without health insurance. It has been 18 months since the President spoke at the commencement at the University of California at San Diego, when he said he wanted "to lead the American people in a great and unprecedented conversation about race." And we still have a long way to go from here. In Minneapolis, African Americans represent nearly two-thirds of homicide victims. It has been this past week three score years and ten — the Bible’s proverbial span of a life — since at 501 Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia, a child was born whom they named Martin Luther King Jr., and we still have a long way to go from here. Here in Minnesota, African American and Native American children are eight times more likely than white children to live out-of-home in foster care, emergency shelters, residential treatment, or juvenile corrections. It has been 35 years since Martin Luther King said that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." And we still have a long way to go from here. In Minnesota, African American youths are five times more likely than average to be incarcerated. It has been three decades since that April 9 when they buried a great prophet who sought to lead a People to the Promised Land, but the hearts of too many have been hardened, the hearts of too many have been stubborn, and we still have a long way to go from here. Here in Minnesota, African American and Native American babies are three times more likely than white babies to die before their first birthday. It has been 135 years since the 16th President of the United States dedicated us all to the proposition "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom." In the name of Martin Luther King, let us rededicate ourselves to that solemn promise, for we still have a long way to go, from here.
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