 And the dispatch today, I think, honored Martin Luther King appropriately by putting up a transcript of a talk Martin Luther King gave on in September 12, 1962, in New York City. And this was at the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's issuing his preliminary emancipation proclamation, right? So this is Free the Slaves, and this is the 100th anniversary. And this is in the midst of the civil rights movement. And this is before the Civil Rights Act. And it is a, I think, a magnificent speech, agree or disagree with aspects of it. I agree with most of it, or almost all of it. This is a magnificent speech, and it's a speech that I wish somebody, anybody, left, right center in America today would be able to deliver even a fragment of a speech like this. So I want to read a little bit of it to you, because I think this gives you a flavor of Martin Luther King. It also gives you a flavor of the intellectuality of an era long gone, long gone from our shores, unfortunately. So these are segments. I encourage you to read the whole thing. Again, this is Abraham Lincoln issuing his preliminary emancipation proclamation 100 years, September 12, 1962, Martin Luther King. And I'm reading it to you, right? If our nation had nothing more in its whole history than to create just two documents, its contribution to civilization would be imperishable. The first of these documents is the Declaration of Independence. And the other is that, which we are here to honor tonight, the Emancipation Proclamation. All tyrants, past, present, and future are powerless to bury the truths in these declarations. No matter how extensive their legions, how vast their power, and how malignant their evil. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed to the world, organized politically and spiritually around the concept of the inequality of man and the dignity of human personality was inherent in man as a living being. The Emancipation Proclamation was the offspring of the Declaration of Independence. It was a constructive use of the force of law to uproot a social order which sought to separate liberty from a segment of humanity. Our pride and our progress would be unqualified if the story ended here. But history reveals that America has been a schizophrenic personality where these two documents are concerned. On the one hand, she has proudly professed the basic principles inherent in these in both documents. On the other hand, she has sadly practiced the antithesis of these principles. The unresolved race question is a pathological infection in our social and political anatomy, which has sickened us throughout our history and is still today a largely untreated disease. Now remember, this is 1962. I'm going to skip a section here, but he goes into the social ills and he talks about how the discrimination, the institutionalized racism not only affects black Americans, but affects the whites as well, that affects all aspects of society. I think he does it quite effectively. And he says, this sober picture may induce the sober thought that there is nothing to commemorate about the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. But tragic disappointments and undeserved defeats do not put an end to life. Nor did they wipe out the positive. However submerged, it may have become beneath floods of negative experience. Then he goes on, when Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, it was not the act of an opportunistic politician issuing a hollow pronouncement to placate a pressure group. Our true great presidents were tortured deep in their hearts by the race question. Jefferson was keen, perception, saw that the festering sore of slavery debilitated white masters as well as the Negro. He feared for the future of white children who were taught a false supremacy. His concern can be summed up in one quotation, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just. And finally he ends this. And I'm skipping some stuff which I encourage you to read because, first of all, he's a beautiful writer, as you know, beautiful speech delivery. But there's a lot of good content here. I'll just end with these two paragraphs. The Negro will never cease a struggle to commemorate the Emancipation Proclamation by making his emancipation real. If enough Americans in numbers and influence join him, the nation we both labor to build may yet realize its glorious dream. There is too much greatness in our heritage to tolerate the pettiness of race hate. The Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation deserve to live in sacred honor. Many generations of Americans suffered, bled, and died confident those who followed them would persevere, sorry, would preserve the purity of our ideals. Negroes have declared that they will die if need be for these freedoms. All Americans must enlist in a crusade finally to make the race question an ugly relic of a dark past. When that day draws, the Emancipation Proclamation will be commemorated in luminous glory. Not only is he a brilliant orator and just a beautiful writer. He is here commemorating and celebrating the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln's proclamation in spite of the fact that blacks continue to suffer in this country post-slavery. He realizes the necessity of the ideas, the truth, the fundamental truth in the ideas of the Declaration and the ideas of the Proclamation. Now granted, Martin Luther King was not consistent in its application of the ideas of the Declaration to all his views, but wow. I mean, who speaks this eloquently today? Who speaks of the founding principles today? Who talks about the Declaration of Independence today? Left or right? Who talks about these two documents being the greatest documents in American history? So, I found this particularly beautiful. It's an illustration of, I think, how impressive Martin Luther King was. If, you know, I think we've reached a day in America at least we are closer to that day that he longs for true emancipation in America because, to a large extent, because of him, because that he stood up and he fought for these ideas. Again, you could find inconsistencies, you can find things that we disagree with him on, but his virtues, I think here, way outweigh his vices and his compared to civil rights, so-called civil rights leaders today as compared to those fighting against discrimination or racism today, he is a giant, a giant. So, happy Martin Luther King Day, I think he deserves it. And it's a good day to remember the dangers of racism, the evil of racism, the legacy of racism, which I think is still with us on all sides of the political spectrum, and that we need to continuously fight, we need to continuously be vigilant about whether that racism manifests itself on left or on right, it doesn't matter, it is something we, as the standard bearers of individualism and Americanism must fight. Thank you for listening or watching the Iran book show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening, you get value from watching, show your appreciation. You can do that by going to iranbrookshow.com slash support, by going to Patreon, subscribe star, locals, and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those, any one of those channels. 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