on Hate and Dreams

"...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. "

"...There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?"
...No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

"...And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers...."

(Excerpts fromMartin Luther King's most famous speech "I have a dream")

What an experience it must have been for the common man to hear Martin Luther King Jr. speak about his optimism for America and its American Negroes as they were called then.

I now invite you to transpose the American places and names with Indian places and names. Choose Gujarat, Ayodhya, Mumbai and Thackerey, Modi, Singhal and others. Or any other names that come to mind.

The situation of man and of society as a measure of man, both then and now ,is uncannily and eerily similar, though the historic precedents for both are very different.

Yet again, Pink Floyd's songs reduce my verbosity on the need to wake up.

While you are wasting your time on your enemies
Engulfed in a fever of spite
Beyond your tunnel vision
reality fades...like shadows into the night

So i opened the door to my enemies
I asked them to wipe the slate clean
they told me to please go and f...k myself
U know you just can't win

(Lost for Words- Pink Floyd, The Division Bell)