I Have a Dream

I am happy to join you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, 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 “inalienable right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad 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.

Now is the time to make real the promise 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 quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

I say to you today, my friends, that is in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American 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 dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have dream that one day “every valley shall be exalted, and 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 go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out 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 a new meaning:

My country, ‘tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my father died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From every mountainside
Let freedom ring!

And if America is to be great nation this must become true.

When we let 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, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

(an excerpt from “I have a Dream” by Martin Luther King)

Vocabulary:
· promissory adj. 許諾的、保證的
· inalienable adj.不可剝奪的、密不可分的
· sacred adj.神聖的
· desolate adj.荒涼的
· creed n.[C] 信念、理念
· swelter vi. 熱得難受
· oppression n.[U] 壓迫
· exalt vt. 提高；讚揚
· crooked adj. 彎曲的
· discord n.[C,U] 不和諧的聲音；不協調
· spiritual n.[C] 黑人靈歌；adj. 心靈的、精神上的
· vault n.[C] 金庫、保險庫
· sunlit adj. 陽光照耀的
· quicksand n.[C,U]流沙
· oasis n.[C] 綠洲
· hew vt. 砍、劈
· jangle vi. 發出刺耳的聲響
· pilgrim n.[C] 朝聖者(此處指早期來到美洲的英國清教徒)
· hamlet n.[C] 小村落
· Jew n.[C] 猶太人
· Gentile n.[C] 非猶太人
· Protestant n.[C] 清教徒
· fall heir to 成為….繼承人
· rise up (against sb./sth.) 起義、反叛
· live out 實踐、身體力行
· (up)on demand 一經要求