An MLK speech you normally don't hear...

[CosmicCowboy]

Six months before he was assassinated, King spoke to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967.

I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is your life's blueprint?

Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint, and that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, and a building is not well erected without a good, solid blueprint.

Now each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives, and the question is whether you have a proper, a solid and a sound blueprint.

I want to suggest some of the things that should begin your life's blueprint. Number one in your life's blueprint, should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth and your own somebodiness. Don't allow anybody to make you feel that you're nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.

Secondly, in your life's blueprint you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor. You're going to be deciding as the days, as the years unfold what you will do in life — what your life's work will be. Set out to do it well.

And I say to you, my young friends, doors are opening to you--doors of opportunities that were not open to your mothers and your fathers — and the great challenge facing you is to be ready to face these doors as they open.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great essayist, said in a lecture in 1871, "If a man can write a better book or preach a better sermon or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, even if he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door."

This hasn't always been true — but it will become increasingly true, and so I would urge you to study hard, to burn the midnight oil; I would say to you, don't drop out of school. I understand all the sociological reasons, but I urge you that in spite of your economic plight, in spite of the situation that you're forced to live in — stay in school.

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn't do it any better.

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.

Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.

[boutons_deux]

I heard Fox Repug Propaganda network referred to the above just this morning

:lol

Of course, Fox Repug would NEVER give MLK any airplay. They're too busy giving voice to racists, haters, Repugs, Fox's own lies and slander, etc, etc,

[CosmicCowboy]

I heard Fox Repug Propaganda network referred to the above just this morning

:lol

Sorry shithead...didn't watch it, didn't see it there.

[ChumpDumper]

Was it an email list?

[CosmicCowboy]

no

[ChumpDumper]

noSo where?

[CosmicCowboy]

So where?

Why does it matter to you?...Do you disagree with the speech? Question it's authenticity? What?

[Wild Cobra]

Why does it matter to you?...Do you disagree with the speech? Question it's authenticity? What?
The shithead is playing his 6th grade version of a 3 year old's "why game."

[The Reckoning]

hey, look a RWE quote! never darn saw one of dem before.

[ChumpDumper]

Why does it matter to you?...Do you disagree with the speech? Question it's authenticity? What?Why are you so loathe to say where you found it?

Ashamed?

[ChumpDumper]

I mean, I have no reason to deny the authenticity of a rather innocuous speech. It's not a big deal. It's hilarious that you're ashamed of who told you about it.

[CosmicCowboy]

LOL @ the pathetic ankle biter...

http://www.compunauta.com/forums/linux/gus/img/fotolog/perritos/chihuahua/chihuahua_daniel.jpg

[ChumpDumper]

lol @ your public shame

Don't be such a pussy, CC.

[CosmicCowboy]

God, you just keep digging your hole deeper ankle biter.

FWIW I followed a link and read it at the Seattle Times.

I'm fairly familiar with MLK quotes as I really admired the man. This was one I hadn't seen before so I thought I would share it with you losers.

Since it hadn't been published in thinkprogress I guess for some reason you and Boutons decided to take offense to it.

fucking pathetic ankle biters...

[ChumpDumper]

God, you just keep digging your hole deeper ankle biter.

FWIW I followed a link and read it at the Seattle Times.

I'm fairly familiar with MLK quotes as I really admired the man. This was one I hadn't seen before so I thought I would share it with you losers.

Since it hadn't been published in thinkprogress I guess for some reason you and Boutons decided to take offense to it.

fucking pathetic ankle biters...A link from where?

Jesus Christ, you are being a pussy about this.

[CosmicCowboy]

WTF?

fucking ankle biter.

Heres your direct link, bitch.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/mlk/king/words/blueprint.html

Are you fucking happy now?

[clambake]

how did get linked there, cowboy?

from where?

[CosmicCowboy]

Are you guys for real?

I like MLK.

It was MLK day. I was bouncing around reading articles about MLK and following links where they led me. Thats what enquiring minds do on the internet. I found a good quote I hadn't seen before. I shared it.

What the fuck is wrong with you losers? I honestly don't remember how I got there....probably that miraculous new technology called google....what the fuck difference does it make?

[clambake]

:lol

[ChumpDumper]

WTF?

fucking ankle biter.

Heres your direct link, bitch.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/mlk/king/words/blueprint.html

Are you fucking happy now?That's not what I asked for.

I honestly don't remember how I got there.
This is hilarious.

[CosmicCowboy]

Pathetic is probably a better term. You and Boutons need to get a real life ankle biter.

[ChumpDumper]

Pathetic is probably a better term. You and Boutons need to get a real life ankle biter.Oh no. It is hilarious.

lol hypothetical google search

[CosmicCowboy]

Oh no. It is hilarious.

lol hypothetical google search

yap, yap, yap. Guess thats what the view looks like from down there. Pathetic really is the more appropriate term.

I found a MLK quote (on MLK Day, a National Holiday) I hadn't seen before (and apparently you guys hadn't seen it either) and shared it with no editorial comment.

It was really that simple.

You get the "Charlie Sheen" award for "winning" while making a total ass of yourself.

Have a nice day. I'm out of this thread.

[ChumpDumper]

yap, yap, yap. Guess thats what the view looks like from down there. Pathetic really is the more appropriate term.

I found a MLK quote (on MLK Day, a National Holiday) I hadn't seen before (and apparently you guys hadn't seen it either) and shared it with no editorial comment.

It was really that simple.

You get the "Charlie Sheen" award for "winning" while making a total ass of yourself.

Have a nice day. I'm out of this thread.lol "found"

Sorry about your secret shame, CC. It's not the first time you stonewalled about your sources.

[Oh, Gee!!]

That'll teach him about posting stuff he finds interesting. The nerve of that guy

[SA210]

That'll teach him about posting stuff he finds interesting. The nerve of that guy

:lol Now, Oh Gee is funny

[Winehole23]

That'll teach him about posting stuff he finds interesting. The nerve of that guy For some reason CC is reluctant to share links and doesn't give them up until pressed by other posters. you don't cover your tracks from an overabundance of naive interest.

OTOH, the accusation that CC is hiding his sources is pure ad hominem and relates nothing to the content of the OP, but solely to its provenance.

ChumpDumper could be overreading CC, but yet again CC has failed to dispel the impression created by his apparent reluctance to share where he gets info, and his peevishness in coming clean does much to underscore it. JMO.

[Wild Cobra]

I heard Fox Repug Propaganda network referred to the above just this morning

:lol

Of course, Fox Repug would NEVER give MLK any airplay. They're too busy giving voice to racists, haters, Repugs, Fox's own lies and slander, etc, etc,
Is that what your bigotry convinces you of?

[Wild Cobra]

WTF?

fucking ankle biter.

Heres your direct link, bitch.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/mlk/king/words/blueprint.html

Are you fucking happy now?
The shitheads will never be happy. The more we show MLK as a man of integrity, the more people hate him. It's a losing battle with the modern day race baiters.

[ChumpDumper]

The shitheads will never be happy. The more we show MLK as a man of integrity, the more people hate him. It's a losing battle with the modern day race baiters.I had no problem with the speech.

Nobody did.

CC was so scurred, he lost his shit when asked for a simple source and started making up stories about memorial MLK Google searches.

Of course WC had to be a good little follower and lose his shit too for precisely the wrong reason.

lol sympathy pains

[CuckingFunt]

The more we show MLK as a man of integrity, the more people hate him. It's a losing battle with the modern day race baiters.

I don't think any of the posts in this thread have even commented on MLK himself.

[spursncowboys]

None of these posts commented on the OP

[The Reckoning]

i did!

[Winehole23]

CC briefly taunted his detractors with the threat of a more topical conversation, then swiftly recommenced counter ankle-biting measures

[Agloco]

<Still wondering what the issue with this speech was>

[Winehole23]

there never was any

[Winehole23]

it's more like ChumpD picked on CC yet again, for being furtive about his sources yet again.

[ChumpDumper]

The speech is fine; not an unusual one for MLK.

[Wild Cobra]

<Still wondering what the issue with this speech was>
The speech tells people to do the best they can be at what ever shitty role life deals them, instead of not striving to be better. Today, I see too many blacks who still blame whites for their position in life. Ever notice how many of them use it for an excuse, rather than actually striving for their best?

[ChumpDumper]

The speech tells people to do the best they can be at what ever shitty role life deals them, instead of not striving to be better. Today, I see too many blacks who still blame whites for their position in life. Ever notice how many of them use it for an excuse, rather than actually striving for their best?And this differs from MLK's usual philosophy how?

[Agloco]

there never was any


The speech is fine; not an unusual one for MLK.

Thought so. Just double checking.


The speech tells people to do the best they can be at what ever shitty role life deals them, instead of not striving to be better. Today, I see too many blacks who still blame whites for their position in life. Ever notice how many of them use it for an excuse, rather than actually striving for their best?

Yeah, those blacks are something else eh WC? Your surgeon appears to have broken the mold though.

[Wild Cobra]

And this differs from MLK's usual philosophy how?
Please refer me to a passage I suggested otherwise.

[Wild Cobra]

Yeah, those blacks are something else eh WC? Your surgeon appears to have broken the mold though.
Isn't it special to have so many trolls devoted to me.

[Blake]

CC briefly taunted his detractors with the threat of a more topical conversation, then swiftly recommenced counter ankle-biting measures

Lol counter ankle biting measures

[Blake]

Isn't it special to have so many trolls devoted to me.

Special might be one way to describe you

[Wild Cobra]

Special might be one way to describe you

Haven't see Wild Cobra Kai for a while.

[ChumpDumper]

Please refer me to a passage I suggested otherwise.Please refer me to a passage I suggested you suggested otherwise.
The shitheads will never be happy. The more we show MLK as a man of integrity, the more people hate him. It's a losing battle with the modern day race baiters.Your turn: Please refer to a passage where any of us expressed hatred for MLK.

[resistanze]

The speech tells people to do the best they can be at what ever shitty role life deals them, instead of not striving to be better. Today, I see too many blacks who still blame whites for their position in life. Ever notice how many of them use it for an excuse, rather than actually striving for their best?

:lol Exploiting MLK's quote to spew generic right-wing garbage

"Whenever the issue of compensatory treatment for the Negro is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree; but he should ask nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic."

"A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro."

"if a man is entered at the starting line in a race three hundred years after another man, the first would have to perform some impossible feat in order to catch up with his fellow runner.”

So in light of these MLK quotes, I can assume you support affirmative action?

[Wild Cobra]

Please refer me to a passage I suggested you suggested otherwise.Your turn: Please refer to a passage where any of us expressed hatred for MLK.
Chump, you are too easy to get started. I wasn't even trying. Bye.

[ChumpDumper]

Chump, you are too easy to get started. I wasn't even trying. Bye.I agree it's a good time for you to run away from this thread after making up such an outrageous and unprovable claim.

[Wild Cobra]

:lol Exploiting MLK's quote to spew generic right-wing garbage

"Whenever the issue of compensatory treatment for the Negro is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree; but he should ask nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic."

"A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro."

"if a man is entered at the starting line in a race three hundred years after another man, the first would have to perform some impossible feat in order to catch up with his fellow runner.”

So in light of these MLK quotes, I can assume you support affirmative action?
Affirmative action is fine, until you introduce quota systems.

[JoeChalupa]

Nice read. :tu

[EVAY]

Six months before he was assassinated, King spoke to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967.

I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is your life's blueprint?

Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint, and that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, and a building is not well erected without a good, solid blueprint.

Now each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives, and the question is whether you have a proper, a solid and a sound blueprint.

I want to suggest some of the things that should begin your life's blueprint. Number one in your life's blueprint, should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth and your own somebodiness. Don't allow anybody to make you feel that you're nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.

Secondly, in your life's blueprint you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor. You're going to be deciding as the days, as the years unfold what you will do in life — what your life's work will be. Set out to do it well.

And I say to you, my young friends, doors are opening to you--doors of opportunities that were not open to your mothers and your fathers — and the great challenge facing you is to be ready to face these doors as they open.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great essayist, said in a lecture in 1871, "If a man can write a better book or preach a better sermon or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, even if he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door."

This hasn't always been true — but it will become increasingly true, and so I would urge you to study hard, to burn the midnight oil; I would say to you, don't drop out of school. I understand all the sociological reasons, but I urge you that in spite of your economic plight, in spite of the situation that you're forced to live in — stay in school.

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn't do it any better.

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.

Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.

It is unclear to me what the brouhaha is here. MLK took not only a quote but a theme from Ralph Waldo Emerson. His basic thrust is as Emersonian as it is consistent with what Dr. King preached about human dignity.


Another longer quote from Emerson that, I believe, provides the context and theme for King's speech as well:

To laugh often and much,
to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children,
to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends,
to appreciate beauty,
to find the best in others,
to leave the world a better place than you found it, whether by a healthy child, or a garden patch...
to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded!


Ralph Waldo Emerson

Isn't that really what King taught and lived himself?

[Winehole23]

that's well turned, EVAY