#StrongerTogether ! MLK, Jr. – an Addendum: Nobel Peace Prize Speech & the Thinking of a Great Leader ~ "I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible"

Focused Read in 3 minutes

📎 Note:

A Martin Luther King, Jr. – addendum, because, sometimes, I think, we forget the great humility of our greatest leaders...

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"Martin Luther King Jr. - Acceptance Speech

Martin Luther King's Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1964"

Highlights ⬇

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice.  

I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. 

... And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation.

... Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.

After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time - the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. 

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. 

Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace...If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama to Oslo bears witness to this truth...It has led to a new Civil Rights Bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a super highway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind.

... I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him.

 I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction.

 I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.

 This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

 I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. 

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits...I still believe that We Shall overcome!

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. 

... I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.

Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible - the known pilots and the unknown ground crew.

So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit.

  ... You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. 

Most of these people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who's Who. 

Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live - men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization - because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake. ... "

You can read the speech in its entirety here

You can watch the 12-minute video of the speech here ⬇

( If you need it, you can find the link to the video here )

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You can share Thom Hartmann's Tweet here

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The Democratic Party Website

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The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Website

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The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Website

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee 

Also

C-SPAN (a good place for speeches & hearings direct source (s))

→ Fact checking organizations courtesy of the Society of Professional Journalists 

in alphabetical order...

FactCheck.org

FlackCheck.org

PolitFact 

Snopes

Washington Post Fact Checker

( You can read more on fact checking here )

→ Some of my favorite, most informative

 follows on Twitter include:

Malcolm Nance   

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC

Kurt Eichenwald

⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author

Ari Berman

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones 

⭐⭐⭐⭐ You can find Verrit:"Media for the 65.8M" here

→ Some of the most credible media -- at the moment:

📰📰📰 Mother Jones

📰📰📰 The Washington Post

📰📰📰 The New York Times

💻💻💻 News And Guts on Facebook

→ Some of the most credible Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:

📺📺📺 Rachel Maddow on MSNBC

📺📺📺📺📺 AM w/Joy Reid on MSNBC

📺📺 Chris Cuomo on CNN

📺📺📺 The Beat With Ari on MSNBC

📺📺📺 Velshi & Ruhle on MSNBC

📺 Nicolle Wallace On MSNBC

( ⬆⬆⬆ Wallace is new to the job but for right now

 her work on Trump GOP has been credible, IMO)

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It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."

You can read the Platform here

Focused Monthly Inspiration 

  

( #its2018now )

In honor of women leading the American Resistance ~ 

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (and just one of the ways they partnered to get the work done) are this month's Focused Inspiration:

" ... Susan, a Quaker, came from a background where girls were valued and educated just as Quaker boys were, but Susan began to see the real world when she became a teacher and was routinely paid about one-quarter of the salary she would have received if she had been a man.

Elizabeth was from a well-to-do family where boys were favored. Elizabeth married and began having children ... At that time, women had little opportunity to control whether or not they became pregnant, and it frequently happened that just as Elizabeth was about to attend a new round of meetings or take on a new push for voting rights, she would find herself pregnant and more or less homebound again. Despite this, Elizabeth attended everything she could and when she was needed at home, she served their team effort by writing speeches that Susan could use at conventions or on the road. ... "

You can read more about this power friendship here

   

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Curated by Gail Mountain, with occasional personal commentary, Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!

( You can also find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )

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g., aka Focused Democrat

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#StrongerTogether ! “The Fight for Health Care Has Always Been About Civil Rights | Dismantling and Slashing Strikes a Blow Against Signature Victories for Racial Equality"

* Early release: 

MUST READ before you start Your Monday -- for proper perspective!

Focused Read in 3 minutes, maybe a bit more..

“The Fight for Health Care Has Always Been About Civil Rights

In dismantling Obamacare and slashing Medicaid, Republicans would strike a blow against signature victories for racial equality in America.

It was a cold March night when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. turned his pulpit towards health care. Speaking to a packed, mixed-race crowd of physicians and health-care workers in Chicago, King gave one of his most influential late-career speeches, blasting the American Medical Association and other organizations for a “conspiracy of inaction” in the maintenance of a medical apartheid that persisted even then in 1966.

There, King spoke words that have since become a maxim: “Of all the inequalities that exist, the injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhuman.” In the moment, it reflected the work that King and that organization, the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR), were doing to advance one of the since-forgotten pillars of the civil-rights movement: the idea that health care is a right. To those heroes of the civil-rights movement, it was clear that the demons of inequality that have always haunted America could not be vanquished without the establishment and protection of that right.

Fifty-one years later, those demons have not yet been defeated...

… People of color were the most likely groups to gain coverage and access to care under the ACA, and in the centuries-old struggle over health, they have never been closer both to racial equality of, access and to, the federal protection of health care as a civil right. But if Republicans have their way, that dream will be deferred.

… even though the ACA isn’t a single-payer or universal system, it did a better job than the status quo ante at ensuring some sort of access to care. According to J. Nadine Gracia, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health and the Director of the Office of Minority Health at HHS—positions and an office that were themselves reauthorized and expanded by Obamacare—the ACA’s benefits were immediately realized in communities of color. “The Affordable Care Act is the most important law to help reduce health disparities since the passage Medicare and Medicaid,” Gracia said, “because the law is addressing issues of access, affordability, and quality of care, which have all been obstacles and barriers that relate to the health of minorities.”

It’s worth noting that much of the animus behind the opposition to Obamacare is tied to race. Studies have shown that racial prejudice is a good predictor of opposition to the bill, and its central policy of Medicaid has always been subject to implicit racial biases in public opinion. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found that Republican voters tend to view Medicaid as welfare, with all the attendant stereotypes and dog whistles.

Much of that implicit opposition was summed up in a famous 2009 rant from conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who called the plan “reparations,” and said it reflected Obama’s belief that “this country was immorally and illegitimately founded by a very small minority of white Europeans … and it’s about time that the scales were made even.” The irony is that Mr. Limbaugh was correct about the bill in one respect: It did disproportionately help the poor and people of color, and in doing so, begin to correct a centuries-old injustice.

In a statement defending his signature policy in May, President Obama articulated just why the ACA was such a historic piece of legislation. “When I took office, millions of Americans were locked out of our health care system,” he wrote. “We finally declared that in America, health care is not a privilege for a few, but a right for everybody.”

Contrary to Obama’s statement, the ACA actually didn’t manage to make health care a right, nor has it allowed all of those locked-out people into the system. But it does come closer to those goals, and does grant access to millions of people of color who had been left out for generations. Unfortunately, the law has also triggered the same conservative immune response that killed single-payer in the past; the same kind of response that King so eloquently railed against in Chicago.

With 51 votes and a presidential signature, Republicans can begin turning back the clock.”

You can read more here

Focused Thought

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You can share Leader Pelosi's Tweet here

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→ Direct sources for Democrats:

(Shared sources and "favorite, most informative follows" are shared with the understanding readers will apply their own critical thinking to the information they consume and that the list may change at any time for any reason. #StrongerTogether does not share lightly but -- no one is perfect!)

The Democratic Party Website

The Democratic Party on Facebook

The Democratic Party on Twitter

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Website

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Website

C-SPAN (a good place for speeches & hearings direct source (s))

News And Guts on Facebook

→ Some of my favorite, most informative

 follows on Twitter include:

Malcolm Nance

US Intelligence +35 yrs | NYT Bestselling Author, Navy Senior Chief. NBC/MSNBC

Kurt Eichenwald

Contributing editor, Vanity Fair; senior writer, Newsweek; MSNBC Contributor, New York Times bestselling author

Ari Melber
MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent | Lawyer | Writer | Emmy-winning reporter | Host of#ThePoint 

Ari Berman
Author: Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America | |Writer:@thenation

Thank you for Networking for Democrats today!

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(Linked) "...is our 2016 platform...a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.

It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."

You can read the Platform here

 (Remember 2018...)

   *

Curated by Gail Mountain, with occasional personal commentary, Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!

( You can also find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )

  *