{"id":69769,"date":"2019-01-21T11:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T17:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=69769"},"modified":"2019-01-21T09:48:52","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T15:48:52","slug":"ive-seen-the-promised-land-repost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=69769","title":{"rendered":"\u201c\u2026I\u2019ve Seen The Promised Land\u201d (Repost)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I collect great speeches.  I\u2019ve got a whole slew of big ones; Churchill\u2019s \u201cBlood, Toil, Tears and Sweat\u201d and the \u201cDunkirk\u201d speech, Reagan\u2019s \u201cShining City\u201d and \u201cA Time for Choosing\u201d and the Brandenburg Gate speech, Kennedy\u2019s \u201cTo The Moon!\u201d and his Little Rock speech, \u201cI Have A Dream\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026and about a year ago, I finally got a copy of Martin Luther King\u2019s \u201cI\u2019ve Been To The Mountain\u201c, made the day before he was assassinated.  And while I\u2019ve been hearing about the speech for decades, it\u2019s amazing to listen to.  Some speeches inspire you; some make you angry; \u201cI\u2019ve Been To The Mountain\u201d is a little of everything, but also draining.  It is almost emotionally exhausting to listen to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it\u2019s worth a listen; it\u2019s one of the greatest speeches in American history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TmZvkHpX_Q4\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>It ends with an account of a near-death experience when a woman tried to stab him,\u00a0years ago in New York.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I\u2019ve forgotten what those telegrams said. I\u2019d received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I\u2019ve forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I\u2019ll never forget it. It said simply, \u201cDear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School.\u201d She said, \u201cWhile it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I\u2019m simply writing you to say that I\u2019m so happy that you didn\u2019t sneeze.\u201d<br> And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn\u2019t sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn\u2019t have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldn\u2019t have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can\u2019t ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn\u2019t have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn\u2019t have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn\u2019t have been down in Selma, Alabama, been in Memphis to see the community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I\u2019m so happy that I didn\u2019t sneeze.<br> And they were telling me, now it doesn\u2019t matter now. It really doesn\u2019t matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us, the pilot said over the public address system, \u201cWe are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we\u2019ve had the plane protected and guarded all night.\u201d<br> And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?<br> Well, I don\u2019t know what will happen now. We\u2019ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn\u2019t matter with me now. Because I\u2019ve been to the mountaintop. And I don\u2019t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I\u2019m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God\u2019s will. And He\u2019s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I\u2019ve looked over. And I\u2019ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I\u2019m happy, tonight. I\u2019m not worried about anything. I\u2019m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The whole thing is very much worth a listen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This\u00a0post\u00a0originally\u00a0published\u00a0on\u00a0MLK Day\u00a02010.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I collect great speeches. I\u2019ve got a whole slew of big ones; Churchill\u2019s \u201cBlood, Toil, Tears and Sweat\u201d and the \u201cDunkirk\u201d speech, Reagan\u2019s \u201cShining City\u201d and \u201cA Time for Choosing\u201d and the Brandenburg Gate speech, Kennedy\u2019s \u201cTo The Moon!\u201d and his Little Rock speech, \u201cI Have A Dream\u201d\u2026 \u2026and about a year ago, I finally [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69771,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69769\/revisions\/69771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}