Kolob

KOLOB <FOR CERTAIN EYES ONLY>

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great European, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Bible. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Christian slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Christian still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the pagan is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Christian lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Christian is still languished in the corners of European society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's religious Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Bible and the Declaration of Peace, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.
This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that Europe and generally the world has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, Europe has given the believers of Christ a bad check; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind Europe and the world of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of sin and injustice to the solid rock of God. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Christian’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Today is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Roman Catholic needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in Europe until the Christain is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Catholic community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?"
We can never be satisfied as long as the Catholic is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.
We cannot be satisfied as long as the Catholic's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.
We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only."
We cannot be satisfied as long as a Catholic in Germany cannot kill Jews and a Catholic in Luxembourg believes he has no reason to do so.
No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Germany, go back to Luxembourg, go back to Slovenia, go back to Georgia, go back to Ukraine, go back to the slums and ghettos of our sad worldly cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.  Let us rise up and join with our brothers and destroy Babylon!
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Christian dream.
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."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Spain the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the country of Italy, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice by plowshares being beat into swords.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by religion but by whether you are burning in the wrath of an Almighty God!
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Italy, with its vicious opressors, with its “President” having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, that one day right down in Italy little Catholic boys and Catholic girls will be able to join hands with little Protestant boys and Protestant girls as sisters and brothers and conquer Satan. But first, we must convince them of their wrong doing.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the world with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "We are victorious!”
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Alps of Italy. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of Greece. But not only that; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Germany. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Switzerland!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Italy. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, , Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, and the war will have ended because today we will have risen up against our enemies and destroyed them…

-Cardinal Tarisco Bertone