As the United States celebrates the Fourth of July (just another day here in southern Mexico!), I find myself reflecting on the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. I love the way that King saw the deeper promise of those classic words of slave holder Thomas Jefferson from the Declaration of Independence. As King put it in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech:
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 [and women, I would add!], would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Continue reading ““God grant that America will be true to her dream””