what a day for mlk!

These days presidents are sworn in on the west side of the US Capitol building. Forty five years ago it all happened on the opposite side. So it's impossible that the gentler, more inspiring face of the civil rights movement could've looked across the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 to see a black president's inauguration. But dreamers don't have to see it to believe it, and Martin Luther King, Jr. was certainly a dreamer.

Not everyone agreed with his premise that the Constitution provides, guarantees even, equal liberty and opportunity for every American. Personally, I don't see how it's possible to read it any other way. But even if you can find a loophole in our nation's founding law, how is it possible to read Jesus' words or observe his deeds/heart and still believe that a person's skin determines their worth.

Had Dr. King lived twice as long as he did, tomorrow would be a tremendous and monumental day for the great inspirer. He'd surely feel that he had come as close as possible to seeing his Dream turn into reality. What a way to celebrate an 80th b'day!

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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.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with 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.
And 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 snow-capped 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 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!