Shakesville

By the Book

The Texas Board of Education is being persuaded to purchase textbooks that give a decidedly conservative slant to history to counteract what they consider to be liberal "propaganda" in the current crop of history books published for the public schools.

The conservative bloc on the Texas State Board of Education won a string of victories Friday, obtaining approval for an amendment requiring high school U.S. history students to know about Phyllis Schlafly and the Contract with America as well as inserting a clause that aims to justify McCarthyism.

Outspoken conservative board member Don McLeroy, who reportedly spent over three hours personally proposing changes to the textbook standards, even wanted to cut "hip-hop" in favor of "country" in a section about the impact of cultural movements. That amendment failed.

The board also voted to delay further debate on the nationally influential standards until March, with a final adoption vote now scheduled for May.

It sounds like they've removed the word "irony" from their state-approved dictionaries.

Crossposted.

That's Some Line-Up!

In a great item about how Newt Gingrich fancies himself a 2012 presidential contender, the former Speaker provided a list of whom he views as the other potential candidates for the GOP's top slot:

Among the other Republican candidates Gingrich named as possible 2012 contenders included former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Also included on Gingrich's list are Govs. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Rick Perry of Texas and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. South Dakota Sen. John Thune may also be a potential candidate, Gingrich said.

In order: Barf, barf, megabarf, yawn, lol, WTF?, hell no, good luck with that, and wow.

Gingrich said he would make a decision about his own political future next year after discussing the prospect of a presidential bid with his wife.

Unless she gets cancer or MS in the interim, in which case he will be discussing the prospect with his next wife. Who is probably his current girlfriend.

Today in FAIL

About two weeks ago, NPR posted this on Facebook:

Which, when I read the comments (there were only 300 or so at the time), produced some fairly interesting answers with only a few ridiculous responses. Most of the responders (at that point), men and women, stated their basic stats and that their arrangement worked for them. A few replied that there was some adjustment in thinking, at first, but it's been great.

To which this was the end product published by NPR today:

Modern Marriages: The Rise Of The Sugar Mama

What I said out loud when I read it: Are you fucking serious?

"Sugar Mama" and "Sugar Daddy" imply an unequal, non-emotional, business-like relationship where one partner is little more than a bank account (or a dupe) and the other partner little more than a someone in search of that account. Neither partner is particularly painted in a good light. The terms are antiquated and offensive. They have no business being used to describe a partnership where one partner simply earns more money or has more formal education than the other--for those situations do not make for an unequal, non-emotional, business-like partnership. I mean, honestly.

While the article has a small amount of interesting information, as comparing 70s PEW studies to now, it's just a whole lot of little fail under that great big fail-filled headline: that old hoary "joke" about women getting a M.R.S being in the article, using the term "marriage market" (again with the business references), the use of just three couples and choosing two who have issues with their situation, having the gumption to criticize "pop culture" for antiquated ideas when using the term "sugar mama" in the headline, and referring to these relationships as "the new economic order" when it's 22% of marriages--hardly a "new order". Oh and we can't forget this which accompanied the article:

Yes, really. That's what they chose to go with this article.

Also, at the very end in the three whole lines devoted to the idea of the husband being the stay-at-home parent, this was said:

Monnig says his wife would love to be a full-time mom. But financially speaking, that just wouldn't make sense.

Now, I have no idea if Monnig used the term "full time mom" or if it was NPR. Either way, though, it's wrong. You never stop being a parent, no matter if one works outside the home or not. One doesn't go to "part time" status once the parent goes out the door to work--or the kids go out the door to school. The old line of thinking that a parent (particularly a mother) isn't a "full" parent simply because they work outside the home is flat-out bullshit and needs to go away just as quickly as the Sugar references.

More Illegal "Counterterrorism" Uncovered

Still with the criminal shenanigans that went on during the Bush administration. And—let me guess—no one will be prosecuted for this, either:

The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions.

E-mails obtained by The Washington Post detail how counterterrorism officials inside FBI headquarters did not follow their own procedures that were put in place to protect civil liberties. The stream of urgent requests for phone records also overwhelmed the FBI communications analysis unit with work that ultimately was not connected to imminent threats.

A Justice Department inspector general's report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed.

...The FBI acknowledged in 2007 that one unit in the agency had improperly gathered some phone records, and a Justice Department audit at the time cited 22 inappropriate requests to phone companies for searches and hundreds of questionable requests. But the latest revelations show that the improper requests were much more numerous under the procedures approved by the top level of the FBI.

How did this happen? Surprise, surprise—it's the return of the Patriot Act-approved National Security Letter!

Before 9/11, FBI agents ordinarily gathered records of phone calls through the use of grand jury subpoenas or through an instrument know as a national security letter, issued for terrorism and espionage cases. Such letters, signed by senior headquarters officials, carry the weight of subpoenas with the firms that receive them.

The USA Patriot Act expanded the use of national security letters by letting lower-level officials outside Washington approve them and allowing them in wider circumstances. But the letters still required the FBI to link a request to an open terrorism case before records could be sought.

Shortly after the Patriot Act was passed in October 2001, FBI senior managers devised their own system for gathering records in terrorism emergencies.

A new device called an "exigent circumstances letter" was authorized. It allowed a supervisor to declare an emergency and get the records, then issue a national security letter after the fact.

For a refresher on the scandalous history of the use of the National Security Letter (NSL) under the Bush administration, let's take a trip in the Wayback Machine.

First, we'll stop in December 2005, when there was a "debate" about "the FBI's use of national security letters to obtain secret access to the personal records of tens of thousands of Americans." (The FBI was, at that time, issuing "more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms.") Then we'll stop in May 2006, when it was discovered the FBI was using NSLs to track news outlets' phone calls "in an effort to root out confidential sources." Next, we'll swing by October 2007, when it was revealed the FBI used NSLs to bully Verizon into turning over "customers' telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005." And let's take a swing by March 2007, when an audit by the Justice Department's inspector general found "22 possible breaches of internal FBI and Justice Department regulations—some of which were potential violations of law—in a sampling of 293 [NSLs]."

In January 2007, I compiled a list of examples of the use of NSLs, which I described as "the intelligence-gathering equivalent of the presidential signing statement—a stroke of the pen to magically turn dubiously ethical and formerly prohibited actions into perfectly legal maneuvers, with no legislation, no oversight, and no knowledge of the American people required." One of the things I noted about the pattern of their usage is that, in each instance, the breach of law was deemed "an accident."

This time is no different:

Bureau officials said agents were working quickly under the stress of trying to thwart the next terrorist attack and were not violating the law deliberately.

Oh, of course not. They never are.

Never mind that the fact some of these NSLs were issued retroactively as an ass-covering maneuver belies that contention entirely. Pay no attention to the NSL behind the curtain! Or something.

On a final note, you may be wondering on whom the FBI was illegally spying in this case. Well:

The records seen by The Post do not reveal the identities of the people whose phone call records were gathered, but FBI officials said they thought that nearly all of the requests involved terrorism investigations.

Gee, that's a relief. Wait. No, it's not. Not when the remaining cases could have been targeting media, or antiwar protesters, or liberal activists, on all of whom the FBI spied during the Bush administration.

FBI officials said they are confident that the safeguards enacted in 2007 have ended the problems.

Rest well tonight, Shakers.

The Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report - T100119

Time for another Teaspoon Report, brought to you by Shaxco, makers of FakeyFossils, the premium pretend evidence of evolution as a theory: favourite of Gods With an Axe to Grind everywhere! Bury them deep, to fool the paleontologists into thinking it was really a seven-day thing!

Leave comments here that describe an act of teaspooning you encountered or committed. They don't have to be big, world-shaking acts; by definition, a teaspoon is a small thing, but enough of them together can empty the ocean.

If you would like to discuss the teaspoons here reported, or even offer congratulations or your admiration to a fellow Shaker, we ask that you do so over here in the Discussion Thread for today's NQDTR.

Shaker bgk has been kind enough to get a Twitter-pated version out there for you young twittersnappers (and by the way, get off my lawn, you meddling kids! *shakes cane*). You can find the details about the Tweetspoons project right here. That runs all the time, as far as I'm aware (*grumblenewtechnologygrumble*), and we encourage you to let other people know that there's at least one tweetstream talking about just going out and doing good things for the human species.

Teaspoons up, let's hear 'em, Shakers!

ô,ôP

NQDTR Discussion Thread - T100119

Hiya, Shakers, time for another Discussion Thread for the Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report!

This is the thread in which you may offer congratulations or admiration for a teaspoon or teaspooner. If you're posting with just congrats or admiration, though, do take a moment and check the thread to see whether other people have said so a number of times already. Remember that no one is required to read here just because they posted over there, so there's no guarantee you'll get a response to a given comment.

Bread and Teaspoons Twenty

Good morning (unless it isn't where you are, in which case I wish you Good $TIME_PERIOD), and welcome to this week's installment of Shakesville's networking post, Bread and Teaspoons*.

This is a (theoretically) weekly post, usually Tuesdays, providing a spot for Shakers to network a little with one another, see if we can help each other out some.

Also remember, if you’re running or part of a small business, you’re encouraged to drop links here for that. I’m happy to see Shakers makin’ their own way in whatever manner that is.

Here's how it works: There should be four sorts of comments here.

1) You comment here with any details of work you're seeking: where, what, that sort of thing. You give an e-mail address at which you can be reached - feel free to set up a special e-mail for it, if you don't want to post your regular one for the world to spam - and if another Shaker has a lead, they can contact you directly to pass it along.

A work-seeking comment should include:

- a short summary of the skillset you're seeking work with;

- a short summary of your experience

- where you're looking for work to happen

- your contact e-mail

Please do NOT include information such as your full name or telephone number, as this is and will remain a public post, and once posted, there's no taking it back (because it'll be spidered by a search engine, not because we don't want you to).

It is explicitly alright to comment to this each week with similar info.

For example, I might post a comment saying:

I'm a professional translator of French, German and Russian, with nearly 17 years of experience. I'm looking for basically any translation job, academic, commercial, personal, genealogical, you name it, with one exception: I do not currently have certification, so if you need a certified translator (usually for legal docs: birth certificates, divorce decrees, wills), you need someone else.

I am also available as a writer or editor, for academic, journalistic, creative, marketing-oriented or any other type of written communication. Basically, if you'll pay me, I'll write or edit it. My company website is found here.

You can contact me for business purposes through my business address, cait@cogitantes.net.

2) The second type of comment would be task offering: if you've got a job you think might suit someone here, consider posting it as a comment. Use the same guidelines as above: give general information here, and specific information when you exchange e-mails. An offered task might look something like this:

I have a doctoral thesis which needs proofing and editing by Thursday, is anyone available? You can reach me at ABDShaker@shakesville.miskatonic.edu.

3) The third kind of comment I'd love to see is success stories! We’d love to know when this works out, and people actually find some employment through our efforts. If you feel like sharing, tell us how it worked out for you. :)

**NEW CATEGORY ADDED**

4) If you’re a progressive working for or running a small business and would like to include a pointer to your business, you may do so. If you’ve never otherwise posted before here (i.e., you’re a lurker), I may check in with you to be certain you’re a Shaker and not a spammer. If it turns into a spamfest, or we start getting businesses that are of dubious progressive credentials, we may need to revisit this one, but let’s give it a try.

So, that's what we'd like to see.

What we do NOT want to see:

- recommendations/references, even for other Shakers - leave those for the contact phase of your negotiation

- rates info - again, leave this for the contact phase of your negotiation; we don't want to encourage bidding wars between Shakers

- illegal employment - whatever we may think of a given law against a certain activity, we don't want to put Shakesville in any awkward spots legally

- links to job search, agency or other sites - this is meant to be Shaker-to-Shaker, here, not a spamming point for other sites; only link to sites which are yours

So there. Have at it, Shakers, for Bread and Teaspoons!

Important disclaimers: Shakesville makes no endorsement or claim as to the capabilities of anyone commenting to this post, and anyone considering hiring someone should be prepared to treat it like any other business situation: DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE. We're not doing any screening of this, so you'll want to make sure you check references, use safe-payment procedures (e.g., ask for a deposit), all the things you'd do when working with any stranger on the Internet. While this is intended for Shakers in general, remember that there is no real obstacle to being able to comment here, and do the things you need to do to keep yourself safe.

* As might be evident, this is an intentional reference to Bread and Roses, a longtime slogan of the left. In this case, though, my hope is that if we achieve steady bread, we will use it to power our teaspoon use.

The last several Bread and Teaspoons: Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen. Nineteen.

Open Thread

Hosted by the Visible Woman and Visible Man.

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Patsy Cline: "Walkin' After Midnight"

Question of the Day

What film features your favorite special effects?

That doesn't necessarily mean your favorite film with special effects; it could be a film you don't really love anything about except the special effects. Any kind of special effects qualify: CGI, miniatures, bigatures, stop-motion, etc.

And, naturally, this isn't a question meant to start an argument about The Best Special Effects Evarrr! but about what you love, for any reason.

Like, a perfectly cromulent answer, ahem, could be: Tron (nerd alert!) because the special effects were like whoa for its time.

It's Hard to Say...

...what my favorite part of this TOTES AWESOME!!!1!eleventy! article filed in the BBC's "Health" section (!) is, but I'm going to go with this passage:

Cavemen are said to have preferred blonde mates because fair hair was an indication of higher levels of oestrogen and fertility.

I never get tired of hearing what "cavemen" preferred in their mates. Go science!

Daily Kitteh

Olivia contemplates misbehavin'.

Sophie whispers from the darkness, "Whatcha got planned?"

Haiti Open Thread

[Trigger warning.]

Washington Post: Haiti's elite spared from much of the devastation.

Guardian: Cruise ships still find a Haitian berth.

UKPA: Haiti victims wait for food and aid.

NPR: Doctors Without Borders Says Coordination of Aid Still Not Sufficient in Haiti.

IOL: 'A choice between life and death':

Doctors helping survivors of the earthquake in Haiti have turned to conducting surgeries in the streets of Port-au-Prince, the head of Doctors Without Borders in Haiti told the German Press Agency dpa.

The international organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) has long been active in Haiti, operating three hospitals in Haitian capital Port-au-Prince alone. However, the hospitals all suffered such severe damages in Tuesday's devastating quake that they can no longer be used.

"The most important thing is saving human lives. That is what we have been trying to do from the start, and we will continue to do it," said Dutch doctor Hans van Dillen, who leads the organization's team in Haiti.

"There is a huge number of extraordinarily-seriously injured. Now, so many days after the quake, the situation is not getting better. This means that we have to carry out a large number of amputations of arms and legs. Saving human lives without any medical equipment, that is the challenge at hand."

Most people in Haiti do not even want to hear of going into hospitals, just like many of them are scared to go home amid fear of aftershocks.

"People are so traumatized that they refuse to go into buildings, no matter how good the condition they are in. That is why we have taken out medical equipment outdoors and have started to perform surgery in the open air."

"We have even done amputations there. For example yesterday, with a fallen tree trunk as an operating table. There is no alternative. It is a choice between life and death."

Donate to Doctors Without Borders here.

ABC: Haiti Earthquake: How You Can Help Victims. I haven't evaluated all the charities listed in this piece, and there are a couple to which I wouldn't personally contribute for various reasons (e.g. high administrative costs), so be sure to do your own research before donating. It's a good place to start, though. Please feel free to make recommendations for or against individual charities in comments.

PC World: Apple Adds iTunes Store Page for Haiti Donations.

Quote of the Day

"Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom."—From the website of Trijicon, a gun sight manufacturer with "a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army," which inscribes "coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ" on its rifle sights.

Monday Blogaround

Today's Blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Pat Robertson Talking Action Figure, now with sufficient flexibility to fit both feet in its mouth at once! Available in Snide & Sexist, Rude & Racist, Horrible & Homophobic, and many, many more! Start your collection today!

Tiger Beatdown: Breaking awards show news

Mongoose Chronicles: RIP Myriam Merlet - another loss to the earthquake in Haiti

WitchWords: Wednesday WTF/Words Mean Things: Rape, again (about the word, rather than the act)

Jump Off the Bridge: The "No Abortion Ban" Campaign (video with transcript and commentary)

What Tami Said: Tami's Favorite Music: Up to the Mountain (MLK song) (in honour of the US' MLK Day today)

Small Strokes, Big Oaks: Teaching Feminism: Everyday Activism

Womanist Musings: Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Legacy Ignored

Think Weird Thoughts: The Absurdities of Advertising

Also, a webcomic I happen to be really enjoying, about geeklife: Weregeek.

Must-Read of the Day

[Trigger warning.]

Harper's: The Guantánamo "Suicides": A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle, in which Scott Horton speaks with "four members of the Military Intelligence unit assigned to guard Camp Delta, including a decorated non-commissioned Army officer who was on duty as sergeant of the guard the night of June 9–10" about the alleged suicides of four Gitmo detainees, the absurdity of the report about their deaths, and the possibility that there was a black site being operated at Gitmo about which the American people never knew.

Close Gitmo Now.

Brett Anderson 2010 Tour Dates

January 2010

Friday 22nd - O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London, England
Sunday 24th - Tivoli, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Monday 25th - Luxor, Koln, Germany
Tuesday 26th - Knust, Hamburg, Germany
Thursday 28th - Nalen, Stockholm, Sweden
Friday 29th - Parkteatret, Olso, Norway
Saturday 30th - Pumpehuset, Copenhagen, Denmark

February 2010

Monday 1st - Lido, Berlin, Germany
Tuesday 2nd - Atomic Cafe, Munich, Germany
Wednesday 3rd - Music Drome, Milan, Italy
Friday 5th - Divan Du Monde, Paris, France
Saturday 6th - Trix, Antwerp, Belgium
Monday 8th - Academy 3, Manchester, England
Tuesday 9th - King Tuts, Glasgow, Scotland

See also.

[Cross-posted.]

WaPo Reports Obama Isn't Magical Wizard

Actual Headline: Fewer Americans think Obama has advanced race relations, poll shows.

My first reaction, upon reading this headline, was that it's rather spectacularly unfair to suggest it's President Obama's personal responsibility to "advance race relations." Silly me, I was under the impression that the problem of racism lies with privileged people who express and/or act on unexamined or proudly-held racist views, and thus racism is their responsibility, not the president's.

I read further, to see if, perhaps, the headline was not truly representative of the content of the article. And it wasn't—insomuch as the article didn't merely lay the responsibility for "advancing race relations" at Obama's feet, but also endeavored to underline that the only role white people have to play in race relations is commenting on them via poll.

On the eve of President Obama's inauguration a year ago, nearly six in 10 Americans said his presidency would advance cross-racial ties. Now, about four in 10 say it has done so.

The falloff has been highest among African Americans. Last January, three-quarters of blacks said they expected Obama's presidency to help. In the new poll, 51 percent of African Americans say he has helped, a wider gap between expectations and performance than among whites.

Note how the article starts out talking about "Obama's presidency"—about which it was eminently reasonable for people, of any color, to hope, wish, believe would mark a change in American race relations—and then casually veers back to talking about Obama himself: "In the new poll, 51 percent of African Americans say he has helped, a wider gap between expectations and performance than among whites." Expectations and performance: It's one thing to note expectations related to his presidency (which firmly and quite rightly places the responsibility of reactions to that presidency with other people), but performance is about the man doing the job. A lazy and selfish man who refuses to wave his magic wand and eradicate racism!

Why won't he give us the post-racial society that the media mendaciously suggested he promised us during the campaign?!

African Americans' views on achieving racial equality have become more pessimistic since the inauguration, returning to their preelection levels. The share saying blacks have reached racial equality dropped 9 percentage points, to 11 percent, and the percentage saying equality will not be achieved in their lifetimes climbed 9 points, to 32 percent. About one in five blacks say they will never achieve racial equality. Among whites, four in 10 say African Americans already have it and 31 percent say it will happen soon.

Well, that's a relief!

Noting that nearly one-third of the white majority believe racial equality "will happen soon" would make an excellent segue into a discussion of their role in that process, but—spoiler warning!—the WaPo doesn't go there. In fact, the closest staff writers Jennifer Agiesta and Jon Cohen ever come to talking about the responsibility of the dominant race class is right in the opening paragraph:

Soaring expectations about the effect of the first black president on U.S. race relations have collided with a more mundane reality, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

That "mundane reality" is called privilege.

And a key aspect of maintaining that privilege are the carefully constructed narratives of denial that allow its bearers to absolve themselves of any responsibility for righting the power imbalance privilege creates. Narratives like: "One prominent successful black person has more responsibility for race relations than all white people do."

President Obama is a powerful symbol (which, even if it is a necessary role of trailblazers among marginalized peoples, is an unfair position for any single person to be put in, though that is a whole other post), but symbols are like any other communication; they have multiple inferences, and it is not the fault of President Obama if there are people who refuse to interpret the symbolism of his presidency as a clarion call for equality, but instead an excuse to deflect the responsibility for inequality back on those who have not achieved what he has.

It is not his task to ensure that his presidency is not used by privileged apologists to deny the existence of institutional bigotry on the fallacious premise that his accomplishments are not despite inequality but evidence of its extinction.

It is the task of the privileged not to make such absurd claims, if they are genuinely interested in progress.

There's some mundane reality for white Americans.

I find it particularly egregious that the Washington Post published this heap of horseshit on Martin Luther King Day.

Text

I just received the following text message:

From: 9099
Sent: Jan 18 8:48AM
Msg: customer issue, us bank service frozen. please call at 570 763 3989

This is totally legit, right?

[Cross-posted.]

Dr. King's Dream

I Have a Dream

[Voices singing "We Shall Overcome."]

Intro: At this time, I have the honor to present to you the moral leader of our nation. I have the pleasure to present to you Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Applause.]

Dr. King: 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 captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still 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. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have 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 which 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. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this 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 quick sands 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 hope 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.

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. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

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.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, 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.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village 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 Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"