Obama hails King but says 'dream' requires vigilance

Google – AFP, Stephen Collinson (AFP), 28 August 2013

US President Barack Obama talks with Yolanda Renee King on

August 28, 2013 in Washington (AFP, Brendan Smialowski)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama hailed Martin Luther King Jr Wednesday for saving America from oppression but said "constant vigilance" was needed to keep the civil rights icon's dream of equality alive.

Fifty years after the "I have a dream speech," America's first black president stood poignantly on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, where King made an appearance in 1963 which changed history.

"He offered a salvation path for oppressed and oppressors alike," Obama said, in a ringing address, which he admitted beforehand would not match King's oratory.

"His words belong to the ages, possessing a power and prophecy unmatched in our time," Obama said.

US President Barack Obama

 speaks at the Lincoln Memorial

 in Washington, DC on August 28,

2013 (AFP, Jewel Samad)

Obama also remembered the thousands of African Americans who joined King's March on Washington to demand their rights and to wake their country's "long slumbering conscience."

The president, who has faced some criticism for not doing more to help the African American community, which remains plagued by poverty and barriers to advancement, dismissed arguments that little had changed for blacks since King spoke.

"To dismiss the magnitude of this progress, to suggest, as some sometimes do, that little has changed -- that dishonors the courage and the sacrifice of those who paid the price to march in those years," he said.

But, in the speech below the monument honoring Abraham Lincoln, the president who ended slavery, Obama also argued that much work remained to be done for King's dream to be fulfilled.

L-R: Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter,

 Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton in

 Washington, DC on August 28, 2013

 (AFP, Jewel Samad)

"We would dishonor those heroes as well to suggest that the work of this nation is somehow complete," Obama said.

"The arc of the moral universe may bend towards justice, but it doesn't bend on its own.

"To secure the gains this country has made requires constant vigilance, not complacency," Obama said.

"Keep on marching," he said.

Obama also recalled that King's throngs came to Washington demanding jobs, and he slipped seamlessly into his core political argument that only by fostering more economic fairness for the middle class, can America meet its promise.

"No one can match King's brilliance. But the same flame that lit the heart of all who are willing to take a first step for justice, I know that flame remains," Obama said.

Obama delivered his speech next to a giant bell that was salvaged from an Alabama Church where four young girls were killed in an arson attack in 1963.

US President Barack Obama speaks

 at the Lincoln Memorial on the

 National Mall August 28, 2013 in 

Washington (AFP, Brendan Smialowski)

The president was joined at the ceremony by former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, revered civil rights leaders like King confidant John Lewis and members of the King family.

Carter bemoaned the "racist bullet" that claimed King's life in 1968.

Clinton said that it was time to open the "stubborn gates" barring wider opportunity.

"The choice remains as it was on that distant summer day 50 years ago. Cooperate and thrive or fight with each other and fall behind."

"(The) march and that speech changed America. They opened minds, they melted hearts," Clinton said, remembering the moment he heard speech.

"They moved millions, including a 17-year-old boy watching alone in his home in Arkansas."

Wednesday dawned rainy and with gray skies in Washington, a far day from that sweltering August back in 1963.

But some of the original crowd returned for the 50th anniversary, pairing their memories with the reality of the challenges facing African Americans today.

US President Barack Obama and

 US First Lady Michelle Obama walk

 into the Lincoln Memorial on 

August 28, 2013 (AFP, Brendan

 Smialowski)

Edith Lee-Payne recalled how, as a 12-year-old, she was captured in an iconic photograph of the day King spoke.

"It was something that didn't end on that day," she said.

"People went back to their respective communities and did what needed to be done and said what needed to be said.

"Still, a lot more needs to be said and done to make this a better place."

King's famous refrain "I have a dream" was not in his original remarks.

But off-the-cuff, King declared: "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'."

The march helped set the stage for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed major forms of racial discrimination, followed a year later by the Voting Rights Act, designed to guarantee the franchise for all black US citizens.

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Kryon Q&A

Question: I’m a black woman who enjoys your teachings tremendously. It seems that there aren’t a lot of black people involved in these discussions. Is this true, and is there a reason for this? Is it cultural? Or am I wrong in this assumption?

Answer: Dear one, yes. If you’re speaking about black Americans, you’re right. It’s cultural. There are two basic reasons you won’t find many blacks in metaphysics in your culture: The first one is that in your land, your race is a minority with a history of oppression. This has created a very strong spiritual support base. Almost from birth, most of you have been exposed to very high church and spiritual support and a feeling of belonging and sticking together. There are few groups that have this kind of support and prayer base. So spiritually, you don’t look around much for answers other than what you have already learned about the love of God. This works for you and is honored.

The second reason is perhaps politically incorrect in your culture to speak of, but Kryon is not of your culture. Many of you are in survival mode due to sustained second-class citizenship you experience from birth. This causes despair, poverty, and a shift to crime among many due to despondency over life and a need to survive in a system that does not honor you. When a Human is consumed with survival in a difficult environment, they don’t have time or a desire for introspection or a search to better themselves spiritually. All their time is spent spinning within the challenges they have, many of which they assume to be their plight, many of which they have created themselves.

The sadness here is that if they did look within, they would find the tools to co-create a life outside of survival, and start processes that honors their endeavors and their lives. Blessed are those with life challenges, as so many of the minorities have, but who have decided to increase their spiritual knowledge as a solution, instead of trying to force-manipulate the reality of the cultural situation.