winterbadger | what an orator! (Reply)

Props to

reabhecc for posting links to two of MLK's speeches at American Rhetoric, including his speech "A Time to Break Silence", which began (in part):

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statements of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart, and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." And that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.

The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.

And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.

One of the most regrettable things about the pace of modern life is that it presses people to take in only the briefest, most superficial, most easily accessed snippets of information. A piece of writing longer than a few sentences, a speech longer than a few words, and people turn away, convinced that they do not have time to listen to or to read anything more. By doing so, all of us (for I recognise the same impulses in myself) miss the opportunity to experience and appreciate the depth of an issue, the nuance and detail of a situation, and the grace, beauty, and strength of a truly great speaker. I suggest we must beware, for if we continue to ignore great speakers, someday we may find there are no more to hear.