OtherThanThat

Every year on Martin Luther King day I begin by listening to the entire speech given by that remarkable man on that powerful day so many years ago. It’s a bit more than 16 minutes in length, and while the excerpts we hear so often deliver a strong impact, there is little to compare with the electric energy of the full speech.
So many of the words uttered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that day ring especially true today – as we look towards tomorrow’s inauguration of this nation’s first black President. But there is so much more than race that makes tomorrow a powerful day. For the last eight years this nation has struggled against demons – from within and without. The racial divide that has long lived here, grew all the more contentious as red states and blue states fairly clove this country in half.
As I sit bathed in the sunrise that has just broken the horizon in San Francisco, listening to the passionate words with the current of hope running beneath them, I find my vision blurred with the hot tears of hope.
We shall overcome.