It's all about context: A very clever turnaround by the Mad Parson. I'll try my hand at a demonstration. Would you yearly salute the memory and honor of a man who spoke these words on the Mall to a quarter of a million Americans:
I was thinking the other day how swell it would be if the clause, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal" were guaranteed by law to all. Even though it's physically impossible, because people never change on earth, and it's hubris to try to change an entire culture, I'd like to see Georgian whites and blacks accepting each other as their own. Since phrases like "oasis of freedom and justice" turn old hand intellectuals off and reek of "mission inebriation," I'll just hedge my bets and hope for a few less lynchings carried out in Mississippi per year; if we can get the number down to two or three by, say, 1990, we've done ourselves a world of good.I was also hoping that my four children will one day live in a nation where they can aspire and live like any other American. You might even say, though I'm not, here, "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Yes, it's high-minded rhetoric. Soaring, even. But I know this isn't heaven. So let's step back from any "dreams" today. Sit-ins and marches are dangerous, and we don't need to summon any more white-robed yokels. We need a breather. Let's go home and take a few baby steps; let's push for being able to use the same water fountains and see where that takes us.
You wouldn't, because he'd have been swallowed by history and forgotten, in his cool, considerate sobriety, by man. Here's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s brilliant speech, that which was once ethereal — but no longer.
A tempered ideal is moral abdication. What grace those like Peggy Noonan will pay for the chance to nationally claim that all has been accomplished in their lifetime with their esteem and relevance.