Free at last

För ett par dagar sedan var det Martin Luther King’s minnesdag och på Jim Wallis blogg blev jag påmind om det tal (“I have a dream”) King höll den där sällsamma augustidagen 1963. Den unge baptistpastorn var avslutningstalare på “March On Washington For Jobs And Freedom” och cirka 300 000 personer stod och satt runt Lincoln Memorial i Washington. Och vilket tal. Jag kan inte läsa det utan gåshud. Så idag hyllar jag King genom att dela med mig av talets avslutning: (här finns talet i sin helhet)

“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!