We honor and celebrate the life and tireless work of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Please remember, as this man demonstrated, your words are only a supplement of your spirit and your actions. As this piece shows, race and identity are significant to our past, constantly evolving in our present and will be a leading force in determining our wellbeing as a people in the future.
We ask you to read, reflect, act towards growth and understanding and to always “…be first in love.”
We can be the next great generation — the New Americana!
“New Americana”
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace…
A child is born with no state of mind,
Blind to the ways of humankind.
God is smilin’ on you but He’s frownin’ too,
Because only God knows what you’ll go through
You declare you see me dimly
Through a glass which will not shine,
Though I stand before you boldly,
Trim in rank and marking time.
You do own to hear me faintly
As a whisper out of range,
While my drums beat out the message
And the rhythms never change.
I’m sick of being tired, sick of the sirens
Body bags and the gun firing
Tell Bush, push the button ‘cause I’m fed
Tired of hearin’ these voices in my head
Tha Streetz R Deathrow
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
The hells we have lived through and live through still,
Have sharpened our senses and toughened our will.
The night has been long.
This morning I look through your anguish
Right down to your soul.
I know that with each other we can make ourselves whole.
I look through the posture and past your disguise,
And see your love for family in your big brown eyes.
Was I somebody they despise, curious look in the eyes
As if they wonder if I’m dead or alive
Poor momma can’t control me
Quit tryin’ ta save my soul,
I wanna roll with my homies
You must come to see that it is possible for a man,
To be self-centered in his self-denial and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice.
He may be generous in order to feed his ego and pious in order to feed his pride.
Man has the tragic capacity to relegate a heightening virtue to a tragic vice.
Without love benevolence becomes egotism, and martyrdom becomes spiritual pride.
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
I’m seeing it clearer, hating the picture in the mirror
They claim we inferior, so why these devils fear ya?
I’m watching my nation die, genocide the cause
Expect a blood bath, the aftermath is y’alls
How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.
How long? Not long,
Because the arc of the moral universe is long,
But it bends toward justice.
To be understood as to understand;
You dwell in whitened castles
With deep and poisoned moats
And cannot hear the curses
Which fill your children’s throats.
To be loved as to love.
It’s like every step brings me close to destiny,
And every breath I get closer to the death of me.
I’m just tryna’ carry out my own legacy,
But the place I call home ain’t lettin’ me.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The extreme optimist says do nothing,
Because integration is inevitable.
The extreme pessimist says do nothing,
Because integration is impossible.
But there is a third position, there is another attitude that can be taken,
And it is what I would like to call the realistic position.
The realist in the area of race relations seeks to reconcile the truths
of two opposites while avoiding the extremes of both.
For it is in giving that we receive,
Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence,
But also internal violence of spirit.
You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
Why am I fighting to live, if I’m just living to fight
Why am I trying to see, when there ain’t nothing in sight
Why am I trying to give, when no one gives me a try
Why am I dying to live, if I’m just living to die?
Someone tell me why?
We all want to be important, to surpass others,
To achieve distinction, to lead the parade…
It’s a good instinct if you don’t distort it and pervert it.
Don’t give it up.
Keep feeling the need for being important.
Keep feeling the need for being first.
But I want you to be first in love.
I want you to be first in moral excellence.
I want you to be first in generosity.
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life…
