Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics

• He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball

• His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili

• His favourite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini

• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father

• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed

• He has read every Harry Potter book

• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali

• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream

• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars

• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia

• He can speak Spanish

• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead

• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea

• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn't

• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia

• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs

• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name

• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived

• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy

• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books

• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck

• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.

• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees

• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date

• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker

• He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol

• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician

• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine

• His daughters' ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)

• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside

• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal

• His house in Chicago has four fire places

• Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita

• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry

• He uses an Apple Mac laptop

• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300

• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits

• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes

• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)

• His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire

• He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers

• He was nicknamed "Bar" by his late grandmother

• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds

• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso

• His speciality as a cook is chilli

• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"

• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life

• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government

50 Fakta Yang Mungkin Anda Tidak Ketahui Tentang Barack Obama

Barack Obama di panggil O-bomber oleh teman-temannya saat SMA di Honolulu (tcu)

Dia mengoleksi sejumlah komik antara lain Spiderman, Conan dan Barbarian
Dia dijuluki ” O’Bomber” di sekolahnya saat SMA
Dalam bahasa Swahili, namanya berarti “orang yang diberkati”
Makanan favoritnya adalah shrimp linguini masakan isterinya, Michelle
Dia memenangkan penghargaan Grammy pada tahun 2006 untuk kategori versi audio dari bukunya, Dreams From My Father
Dia adalah seorang yang bertangan kidal ( Orang ke -enam dalam sejarah Presiden Amerika yang bertangan kidal)
Dia membaca semua buku Harry Potter
Dia mempunyai sarung tinju berwarna merah ditandatangani oleh Muhammad Ali
Dia pernah bekerja di sebuah toko es krim Baskin - Robbin saat remaja
Snack favoritnya adalah potongan coklat kacang
Dia memakan daging anjing, daging ular dan belalang panggang saat hidup di Indonesia
Dia dapat berbahasa Spanyol
Saat kampanya dia tidak menonton CNN dan lebih memilih channel olahraga
Minuman favoritnya teh es black forest berry
Pernah berjanji pada isterinya Michelle akan berhenti merokok sebelum mencalonkan diri jadi presiden - ternyata tidak
Pernah memlihara se-ekor monyet bernama Tata saat tinggal di Indonesia
Dia dapat mengangkat barbel seberat 200 pound
Dia dikenal dengan nama Barry hingga kuliah dan ketika ditanya untuk mengisi nama lengkapnya
Buku favoritnya adalah Moby-Dick karangan Herman Malville
Dia mengunjungi Wokingham, Berks pada tahun 1996 untuk menghadiri sebuah pesta khusus laki-laki dalam pesta tunangan adik tirinya, tetapi meninggalkan pesta tersebut saat stripper datang
Mejanya di kantor Senat , pada masa lalu pernah di pakai oleh mendiang Robert Kennedy
Pendapatannya dan isterinya (Michelle) tahun lalu sebesar $ 4,2 Juta , kebanyakan berasal dari penjualan buku karangannya
Film favoritnya adalah Casablanca dan One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Dia membawa sebuah Madonna dan patung kecil serta sebuah kalung milik seorang tentara di Irak demi keberuntungan
Pernah mengajukan diri supaya tampil di sebuah kalender pin-up saat kuliah di Harvard , tetapi di ditolak oleh semua komite wanita
Musik favoritnya termasuk Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach dan The Fugess
Kencan pertamanya dengan Michelle dimulai dengan menonton film -nya Spike Lee “Do The Right Thing”
Dia menikmati permainan Scrabble dan Poker
Dia tidak meminum kopi, juga jarang meminum minuman beralkohol
Jika tidak menjadi seorang politisi, dia akan memilih menjadi seorang arsitektur
Saat remaja dia memakai obat-obatan terlarang termasuk marijuana dan kokain
Putri-nya Malia (10 Tahun) bercita-cita kuliah di Yale atau menjadi seorang artis dan Sasha (7 Tahun) ingin menyanyi dan menari
Dia membenci gaya anak muda dengan celana melorot dibagian belakang
Dia melunasi cicilan kuliahnya empat tahun yang lalu, setelah menandatangani penjualan bukunya
Rumahnya di Chicago mempunyai empat buah penghangat ruangan dari api (fire place)
Wali perempuan putrinya Malia, adalah Santita, anak perempuan dari Jesse Jackson
Dia mengakui kebiasaan buruknya, terlalu sering memeriksa Black Berry-nya
Dia menggunakan sebuah laptop Macintosh buatan Apple
Dia mengendarai mobil Ford Escape Hybrid, dan menyingkirkan mobil boros sebelumnya Chrysler 300 SUV
Dia mengenakan stelan seharga $ 1,500 buatan Hart Scaffner Marx
Dia mempunyai empat buah pasang sepatu hitam yang sama persis, berukuran 11
Dia pergi ke tukang pangkas langganannya, Zariff di Chicago. Seminggu sekali, dan dikenakanan biaya $ 21
Tokoh fiksi acara televisi yang jadi favoritnya adalah Mash and The Wire
Dia diberi kode nama ” Renegade ” oleh unit Secret Service (pengawalnya)
Dia dijuluki “Bear” (beruang) oleh neneknya
Dia mempunyai rencana untuk membangun lapangan basket di lahan Gedung Putih
Seniman favoritnya adalah Pablo Picaso
Tugas utamanya saat memasak adalah mengurus cabai
Dia pernah berujar, banyak teman-temannya saat di Indonesia adalah anak jalanan
Dia senantiasa menempatkan sebuah ukiran kayu berbentuk tangan yang memegang sebuah telur, dimeja kerjanya. Sebuah simbol dari Kenya yang melambangkan rapuhnya hidup ini
Almarhum ayahnya adalah seorang ahli ekonomi senior di pemerintahan Kenya

America's future depends on a holy people

November 16, 2008


By Marie Jon

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16)

I believe that America will not survive the political and social trials that are to come if we are not engaged in the fight to protect our Christian beliefs. The Ten Commandments, written by the hand of God, are our moral compass. Liberalism has slowly worked its way into mainstream Christian denominations. If it were not so we would have been a wiser people and elected a president who shares the same principles found in the teachings of the Great I Am.

Many evangelicals and Catholics voted in to the office of the presidency America's most liberal senator on social issues that concern our children's sexual identity, marriage and the sanctity of human life. All of these extremely important topics appear to be above Barack Hussein Obama's pay grade. What were these Christians thinking?

I heard of a man who made a pact with The Almighty. The man promised God that he was not going to do His will, even though it meant finding his own eternal destiny in a place prepared for the devil. This story reminded me of the biblical parable found in Matthew 21.

Jesus, in a parable, said: "What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' He answered, 'I will not'; but later during the same day the man changed his mind. The father went to the second son and asked the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir'; but he did not go" (Matthew 21:28-30).

May I ask you: How do you respond to God's call in your life? Have you ever felt the Lord's call for a very special kind of ministry? Maybe God was asking you to surrender your life to Him through the power of His Holy Spirit.

Because of fallen human nature of all mankind since the beginning, many people do not respond to God. They rather resist and are unwilling to concede the need of a loving Savior who lived and died and rose again so they could have eternal life in the world to come. Many are called, but refuse to answer.

Amos 5:1-2: The Lord judges a nation just as He does individual people. America, how is your walk with the Savior doing? Are you yielding to His gentle voice? Many of God's anointed answered the call once in their lives, but then found themselves backsliding and off course.

The drive-by media of the New Testament gave the priests and Pharisees some pretty bad press. Although there were many uncomfortable conflicts between them and Jesus, don't ever assume that they were all in open rebellion against Christ. In fact, the book of Acts reveals that many who verbally fought against Jesus eventually became Christians.

You'll find their story in the parable. They are represented by the second son. The one son who agreed to go to work in his father's vineyard represents many Christians who had very good intentions and started out to serve the Lord faithfully, but allowed themselves to become sidetracked along the way. For them there had come a time for epiphany. Let's just say that they experienced a watershed in their lives when they had chosen the wrong path.

In the parable, Jesus points to a specific time and place where they had failed to grow and continue their walk with God. What He said to them is still important to Christians living today. "For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome." (1 John: 5-3)

Excerpts From Religious Right R.I.P.:

"When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, he will do so in the 30th anniversary year of the founding of the so-called Religious Right. Born in 1979 and midwifed by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Religious Right was a reincarnation of previous religious-social movements that sought moral improvement through legislation and court rulings. Those earlier movements — from abolition (successful) to Prohibition (unsuccessful) — had mixed results.

"Social movements that relied mainly on political power to enforce a conservative moral code weren't anywhere near as successful as those that focused on changing hearts. The four religious revivals, from the First Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s to the Fourth Great Awakening in the late 1960s and early '70s, which touched America and instantly transformed millions of Americans (and American culture as a result), are testimony to that.

"Thirty years of trying to use government to stop abortion, preserve opposite-sex marriage, improve television and movie content and transform culture into the conservative Evangelical image has failed. The question now becomes: should conservative Christians redouble their efforts, contributing more millions to radio and TV preachers and activists, or would they be wise to try something else?"

Full Article

We all need to take into consideration the progress of our own walk with the Savior and Creator of the universe. My sisters and brothers, let us repent and move forward. We are not saved by the Ten Commandments but "by grace, least any man should boast." However, the Lord gave His commandments in love to guide our lives upright before Him and others. We are the Lord's witnesses.

We're to be seen as a light as Christ was unto this world, so others will be drawn to Him. May we do so with humility toward God and a willingness to respond to Him by doing His will through love.

If we lose our salt and our image appears to be a mirror of the worldliness that we proclaim to reject, we will not be able to win one soul for Christ. Our country needs a righteous religiosity, lead by those who have regenerated hearts and who are on fire for their Lord and Savior. We must not be viewed as mere hypocrites who talk the talk but do not walk the walk.

The headlines announce that the whole world is waiting for President Obama. Sorry Jesus Christ, you'll have to postpone your long awaited Second Coming, because Obama, with his huge government programs, has everything covered. Soon we will be living in the land of plenty and honey.

We were called out to be fishers of men and to conduct ourselves befitting the stature of sons and daughters to the most Holy God. America's future depends on a holy people who are willing to let their light shine and not hide their Christianity under a bushel. Ill-informed people of faith went into the voting booths and decided to vote their pocketbooks and bring socialism to America's doorstep. Unless Christ cuts the time in half, Christians will be wandering through the desert of a socialistic progressive malaise for a long, long time.



In the parable, Jesus points to a specific time and place where they had failed to grow and continue their walk with God. What He said to them is still important to Christians living today. "For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome." (1 John: 5-3)

What Martin Luther King called evil, Barack Obama calls good

October 28, 2008

By Clenard Childress
Rev. Dr. Clenard H. Childress, Jr., is the senior pastor of The New Calvary Baptist Church in Montclair, NJ. He is the founder of the website Blackgenocide.org and president of Life Education And Resource Network, Northeast. LEARN is the largest African-American pro-life group in the US. Rev. Childress is a leader in social activism and partners with the Center For Bioethical Reform, taking the Genocide Awareness Projects to college campuses around the country.

Rev. Childress and his wife Regina have 4 children: Clenard, Thomas, Tonya, and Tia.
I had the pleasure of meeting Gianna Jessen earlier this year at "Walk for Life San Francisco." Gianna's vibrant energetic personality is therapeutic. Engaging her in conversation is a sure cure for anyone struggling with personal demons of fear and insecurity! Gianna is a sure and certain candidate for receiving the 'against all odds' award. Challenges are not new to Gianna. She was scheduled for a saline solution abortion while she was in her third trimester in her mother's womb. After being burned alive for approximately 18 hours, she survived! Her mother gave her up for adoption and the saline solution caused her to develop cerebral palsy. Challenged by death, desertion, and disease, she prevailed and is one of the most sought after anointed gospel vocalists of our time.

Gianna survived, but if a certain Illinois Senator would have had his way, she would have never received medical attention after the botched abortion. Senator Barack Obama heard the story of babies like Gianna who were surviving abortions but were being left to die in dirty laundry closets at Christ Hospital in Chicago but did nothing on their behalf. As well, the profession which takes the Hippocratic Oath to preserve and save life, ignores struggling infants in desperate need of assistance. Naked, helpless, and in extreme pain, they receive no assistance, no doctor to aid, and no mother to care. Barack Obama, after hearing of these brutal, calloused acts of mans inhumanity to man, voted to allow this heinous, barbaric behavior to continue. Barack Obama voted three times against protecting these born alive victims.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised when we look at his consistent anti-infant voting record. The wife of the senator, Michelle Obama, has written letters supporting partial birth abortion. The Obama's are advocates and supporters of Planned Parenthood with full knowledge of their racist practices against African-Americans. I cannot fathom how any person, or leader of conscience, would support a candidate that not only willfully promotes an institution of such racist origin, but embodies their value system. It's despicable and unconscionable.

In his speech at the Planned Parenthood Fund raiser, Barrack Obama recalled how the first 'Margaret Sanger Award' went to Martin Luther King. To those of you that know of Margaret Sanger, you are aware this was an attempt to put a 'Black face' on her plan to initiate sterilization and abortion in the African-American community. Just as it is with Barrack Obama, the vast majority of Americans did not know of Sanger's radical views on race and government; they did not know of Sanger's associations with Adolph Hitler, Paul Stoddard and members of the Third Reich. Margaret Sanger fooled a lot of people with her deception; so is Barack Obama.

Since Barack Obama had the "audacity" to bring up Martin Luther King, let's look at my favorite portion of Kings prophetic "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" ...

"There was a time when the church was very powerful in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and outside agitators. But the Christians pressed on in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven" called to obey God rather than man. Small in number they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide."

Martin Luther King points to a people of Christian faith that demanded an end to infant killing. In Rome in their declining years, it became law that upon the birth of your newborn child, if you didn't like the color of their eyes, the texture of their hair, the complexion of their skin, you could by law lay your child by the side of the road to die. The law further stated, anyone touching your child to give aid would be put to death. The newborn child was to be left to die! The early church under the threat of death scooped those children up and raised them as their own. Martin Luther King called not giving children "left by the side of the road" receiving no aid, evil! Barack Obama calls it a good thing. 80% of Americans call partial birth abortion, evil, while Mr. and Mrs. Obama call it a good thing.

St. Augustine said, "An unjust law is no law at all." I would say, "Far worst than the unjust laws are the persons who would vote to elect candidates who support unjust laws."

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes

"A riot is the language of the unheard."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Where do we go from here?"

"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

"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."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream"

"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."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream"

"I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for the law."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"If a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land . . . So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "I've Been to the Mountaintop"

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength in Love

"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength in Love

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength in Love

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"We were here before the mighty words of the Declaration of Independence were etched across the pages of history. Our forebears labored without wages. They made cotton 'king'. And yet out of a bottomless vitality, they continued to thrive and develop. If the cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail... Because the goal of America is freedom, abused and scorned tho' we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, 'Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.'"
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream"

"A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love

"A riot is the language of the unheard."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Where do we go from here?"

"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

"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."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream"

"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."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream"

"I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for the law."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"If a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land . . . So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "I've Been to the Mountaintop"

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength in Love

"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength in Love

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength in Love

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"We were here before the mighty words of the Declaration of Independence were etched across the pages of history. Our forebears labored without wages. They made cotton 'king'. And yet out of a bottomless vitality, they continued to thrive and develop. If the cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail... Because the goal of America is freedom, abused and scorned tho' we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, 'Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.'"
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream"

Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech

Below is the text of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, considered by historians to be one of the greatest of American political speeches.

King delivered it on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. as part of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march was a vital factor in passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

"I HAVE A DREAM" SPEECH
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
August 28, 1963

"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.

Five score years ago, a great American, 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 Negro 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.

The Negro still is not free.

But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American 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 American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men - yes, black men as well as white men - would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that 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.

Time to rise from the dark valley of segregation.

And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice. We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America 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 Negro'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.

Those who hoped that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

Let us not drink from the cup of bitterness and hatred

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 Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white 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.

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 Negro 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 Negro'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 selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only."

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York 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.

Wise & Prophetic Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Deborah White, About.com


Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), a Baptist minister, was the best-known leader of the US civil rights movement. In his lifetime, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and from the American Jewish Committee, their American Liberties Medallion for his "exceptional advancement of the principles of human liberty."

The crowning achievements of Dr. King's drive for equality for all Americans were the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed into law a federal holiday marking the January 15 birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., which is celebrated nationally on the third Monday in January.

The inspiring words selected for this article are taken mainly from "The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr," published in 1984. This book contains 120 excerpts, selected by Dr. King's wife, Coretta Scott King, from his speeches, writings and sermons, as well as rare photographs, a detailed chronology, and an introduction by Mrs. King.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. on War and Peace

"This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate in to the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
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"We will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut off from means, because the means represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process. Ultimately, you can't reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree."
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"The church cannot be silent while mankind faces the threat of nuclear annihilation. If the church is true to her mission, he must call for an end to the arms race."
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"The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding. It seeks to annihilate rather than to convert.

Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue.

Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers."
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Martin Luther King, Jr on the Role of Religion in Society

"A religion true to its nature must also be concerned about man's social conditions....Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion.

Such a religion is the kind the Marxists like to see---an opiate of the people."
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"Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values.

The two are not rivals. They are complementary.

Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism. Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism."
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Martin Luther King, Jr. on Justice and Freedom

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed."
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"Direct action is not a substitute for work in the courts and the halls of government. Bringing about passage of a new and broad law by a city council, state legislature, or the Congress, or pleading cases before the courts of the land, does not eliminate the necessity for bringing about the mass dramatization of injustice in front of a city hall.

Indeed, direct action and legal action complement one another. When skillfully employed, each becomes more effective."
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"When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.

Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice." Martin Luther King, Jr. on Civil Rights

"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, quality and freedom for their spirit. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up."
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"A doctrine of black supremacy is as evil as a doctrine of white supremacy."
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"There is nothing that expressed massive civil disobedience any more than the Boston Tea Party, and yet we give this to our young people and our students as a part of the great tradition of our nation.

So I think we are in good company when we break unjust laws, and I think those who are wiling to do it and accept the penalty are those who are part of the saving of the nation."
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"Nothing provides the communists with a better climate for expansion and infiltration than the continued alliance of our nation with racism and exploitation throughout the world.

And if we are not diligent in our determination to root out the last vestiges of racism in our dealings with the rest of the world, we may soon see the sins of our fathers visited upon our and succeeding generations.

For the conditions which are so classically represented in Africa are present also in Asia and in our own backyard in Latin America."
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"Let us say it boldly, that if the total slum violations of law by the white man over the years were calculated and were compared with the lawbreaking of a few days of riots, the hardened criminal would tbe the white man."
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Martin Luther King, Jr. on Mankind

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend."
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"Many people fear nothing more terribly than to take a position which stands out sharply and clearly from the prevailing opinion. The tendency of most is to adopt a view that is so ambiguous that it will include everything and so popular that it will include everybody.

Not a few men who cherish lofty and noble ideals hide them under a bushel for fear of being called different."
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"All too many of those who live in affluent America ignore those who exist in poor America. In doing so, the affluent Americans will eventually have to face themselves with the question that Eichmann chose to ignore: How responsible am I for the well-being of my fellows? To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it."

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