The Music of the Arc of the Moral Universe

From the Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, these phrases were assembled into five poems with the hope that someday I will be able to record the voices of young people reading the words, and get artistic help choreographing movement to these words, and performing the piece as an artistic representation of the movement of the arc of history toward justice.

Scott Holmes

 

I. A Radical Revolution of Values

My dear and abiding friends:

A time comes
when silence is betrayal …
We as a nation
must undergo a radical revolution of values

We must rapidly shift

from a thing-oriented society
To a person-oriented society

When machines and computers,
Profit motives and property rights,
Are more important than people -
The giant triplets of
Racism, materialism, and militarism
Are incapable of being conquered

True compassion

is more than flinging a coin at a beggar
It comes to see
that an edifice which produces beggars
Needs restructuring

A true revolution of values

will soon look uneasily
On the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth
And say, “This is not just”

A true revolution of values

will lay hands on the world order
and say of war:
“This way of settling differences is not just”

This business of killing human beings

And filling our nation’s homes
with orphans and widows
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
 
America
The richest and most powerful
Nation in the world
Can well lead the way
in this revolution of values

There is nothing,

Except a tragic death-wish,
To prevent us
from re-ordering our priorities

So that the pursuit of peace

Will take precedence
Over the pursuit of war

War is not the answer.

 
We are confronted with
The fierce urgency of now
In this unfolding conundrum of
Life and history

There is such a thing -

As being too late

If we do not act
We shall surely be
dragged down the long, dark, shameful
corridor of time
reserved for those who
possess power without compassion
might without morality
and strength without sight

 

II. Let us be Dissatisfied

Let us be dissatisfied

Until the tragic wall that separates
the outer city of wealth and comfort
And the inner city of poverty and despair
Shall be crushed by the
Battering rams of justice

 Let us be dissatisfied

Until those who live on the
Outskirts of hope
Are brought into the
Metropolis of daily security

Let us be dissatisfied

Until from every city hall
Justice will rolls down like waters
And righteousness like a mighty stream

I believe that unarmed truth
And unconditional love
Will have the final word in reality

That is why right,

temporarily defeated,
Is stronger than evil triumphant

I believe that even amid today’s mortar blasts
And whining bullets
There is still hope
For a brighter tomorrow

I have the audacity to believe that people

Everywhere

Can have three meals a day
for their bodies

Education and culture
for their minds

And dignity, equality, and freedom
for their spirits

III. Let us March

Let us March

Let us march on segregated housing

Until Negroes and whites
Live side by side
in decent, safe and sanitary housing

Let us march on segregated schools

Until Negroes and whites
Study side by side
in the socially healing context of the classroom

Let us march on poverty

Until no American parent
has to skip a meal so their children can eat
Until no starved man walks the streets of our cities
In search of jobs that do not exist

Let us march on ballot boxes

Until we send to our city councils
People who will not fear
to do justice,
love mercy,
and walk humbly with their God

IV. How Long? Not Long!

I know you are asking today,

“How long will it take?”

How long?
Not long!

Because no lie can live forever

How long?
Not long!

Because you still reap what you sow

How long?

Not long!

Because the arc of the moral universe is long

But it bends toward justice

How long?

Not long!

Because mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord

V. We are on the move now

I want to say to the people of America
And the nations of the world:

We are not about to turn around,
We are on the move now, and
Nothing can stop us.

We are on the move now . . .

The burning of our churches will not deter us

We are on the move now . . .
The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us

We are on the move now . . .
The beating and killing of our young people will not divert us

We are on the move now . . .

Like an idea whose time has come

Not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us

We are moving to the land of freedom