We Refuse to Believe that the Bank of Justice is Bankrupt

I recently heard a Yale professor say, the often ignored, but most important part of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech is the first part. I agree, and am reprinting it here. I believe it is applicable to all Americans in their struggle for decent health care. I have also included a translation in Chinese, for my Chinese friends who have their own Civil Rights struggle. Although the Chinese people will work out their own way, I believe King's words are an important inspiration and very applicable to the Chinese people's struggle for their rights.

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

今天，我高兴地同大家一起，参加这次将成为我国历史上为了争取自由而举
的最伟大的示威集会。

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

100年前，一位伟大的美国人——今天我们就站在他象征性的身影下——签署了
《解放宣言》。这项重要法令的颁布，对于千百万灼烤于非正义残焰中的
黑奴，犹如带来希望之光的硕大灯塔，恰似结束漫漫长夜禁锢的欢畅黎明。

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

然而，100年后，黑人依然没有获得自由。100年后，黑人依然悲惨地
蹒跚于种族隔离和种族歧视的枷锁之下。100年后，黑人依然生活在
物质繁荣翰海的贫困孤岛上。100年后，黑人依然在美国社会中间向
隅而泣，依然感到自己在国土家园中流离漂泊。所以，我们今天来到这
里，要把这骇人听闻的情况公诸于众。

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 unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

从某种意义上说，我们来到国家的首都是为了兑现一张支票
我们共和国的缔造者在拟写宪法和独立宣言的辉煌篇章时，
就签署了一张每一个美国人都能继承的期票。这张期票
向所有人承诺——不论白人还是黑人——都享有不可让渡的生存
权、自由权和追求幸福权。

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a 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. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises 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 quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

然而，今天美国显然对她的有色公民拖欠着这张期票。美国
没有承兑这笔神圣的债务，而是开始给黑人一张空头支票—
—一张盖着“资金不足”的印戳被退回的支票。但是，我们决
不相信正义的银行会破产。我们决不相信这个国家巨大的机
会宝库会资金不足。因此，我们来兑现这张支票。这张支票
将给我们以宝贵的自由和正义的保障我们来到这块圣地还
为了提醒美国：现在正是万分紧急的时刻。现在不是从容
不迫悠然行事或服用渐进主义镇静剂的时候。现在是实现
民主诺言的时候。现在是走出幽暗荒凉的种族隔离深谷，
踏上种族平等的阳关大道的时候。现在是使我们国家走
出种族不平等的流沙，踏上充满手足之情的磐石的时候。
现在是使上帝所有孩子真正享有公正的时候。

(translation not mine)

White House Health Care Reform Site

The White House has launched a health care reform site to give a reality check to what is being said.

Towards the Etiquette of Democracy and Dialogue

As I have mentioned on facebook, watching the town hall meetings on health care, I have been alarmed that there is a growing problem with civility. This made me think about a book I have held in high regard on this topic. It was published in 1998. Here is what the inner jacket cover said, back then:

"Something terrible has happened to civility. We can no longer hold political discussions without screaming at each other, so our democracy is dying (my emphasis). We can no longer look at strangers without suspicion and even hostility, so our social life is dying. We can no longer hold public conversation about morality without trading vicious accusations, so our moral life is dying. All the skills of living a common life-what Alexis de Tocqueville called "the etiquette of democracy" -are collapsing around us, and nobody seems to know how to shore them up again."

The above lets us know, this is not just the current generations problem, but it does point to the urgency of solution. The book is Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy by Stephen L. Carter. The book is still available. Some of you know that Carter was criticized as a conservative back then... I only wish the conservatives of today could also follow these guidelines. I found it interesting that the book took its inspiration from Abolitionist sermons of the nineteenth century. So, at the risk of sounding old fashioned, and in the interest of democracy, here is some of what Mr. Carter, Professor of Law at Yale recommends:

• Our duty to be civil toward others does not depend on whether we like them or not.

• Civility requires that we sacrifice for strangers, not just for people we happen to know.

• Civility has two parts: generosity, even when it is costly, and trust, even when there is risk.

• Civility creates not merely a negative duty not to do harm, but an affirmative duty to do good.

• We must come into the presence of our fellow human beings with a sense of awe and gratitude.

• Civility requires that we listen to others with the knowledge of the possibility that they are right, and we are wrong.

• Civility requires resistance to the dominance of social life by the values of the marketplace. Thus, basic principles of civility -generosity and trust-should apply fully in the market and in politics as in every other human activity.

• Civility allows criticism of others, and sometimes even requires it, but the criticism should always be civil.

• Civility values diversity, disagreement, and the possibility of resistance, and therefore the state must not use education to try to standardize our children.

• Religions do their greatest service to civility when they preach not only love of neighbor but resistance to wrong.

Carter's book explains each of these bullet points and more, one per chapter. It is an interesting and provocative book, I recommend it.

It is a high order, in some countries people are jailed for it, but it is important for democracy. Only when we model it can others see the value of it. I am wishing to start a dialogue. What do you think?