Now that he is safely dead<\/p>\n
Let us praise him<\/p>\n
build monuments to his glory<\/p>\n
sing hosannas to his name.<\/p>\n
Dead men make<\/p>\n
such convenient heroes: They<\/p>\n
cannot rise<\/p>\n
to challenge the images<\/p>\n
we would fashion from their lives<\/p>\n
And besides,<\/p>\n
it is easier to build monuments<\/p>\n
than to make a better world.<\/p>\n
So, now that he is safely dead<\/p>\n
we, with eased consciences<\/p>\n
will teach our children<\/p>\n
that he was a great man … knowing<\/p>\n
that the cause for which he lived<\/p>\n
is still a cause<\/p>\n
and the dream for which he died<\/p>\n
is still a dream,<\/p>\n
a dead man’s dream.<\/p>\n
\u00be Carl Wendell Himes, Jr.<\/p>\n
Whatever image we may fashion from his life, this “inconvenient hero” rises to challenge us now in the year of imperial presidency.<\/p>\n
His rising wakens “inconvenient” others whose words join his. He rises with words that tell the truths we would deny.<\/p>\n
He rises with words that no nation can long exist on two priorities of butter and bullets.<\/p>\n
He rises with words that warn of the “inevitable consequences of power in the hands of avarice.”<\/p>\n
He rises with words to remind us that garbage collectors of every Memphis, of every age, are human beings, deserving respect.<\/p>\n
He rises with words that caution reformers that “fear of losing everything intimidates them to ask for too little.”<\/p>\n
He rises with words of a God who will not be mocked, to call upon white America to cease its oppressive ways or suffer judgment of the ages.<\/p>\n
He rises with words to scorn a late century which accepted a new category of people called the working poor.<\/p>\n
He rises with words that echo the truth that there are no poor people, only those who are made poor.<\/p>\n
He rises with words to remind us that the check for past services by African Americans is overdue more than two hundred years.<\/p>\n
He rises with words which “speak against the day” that claims superiority for one people over all.<\/p>\n
He rises with words that tell us that violence begets violence; it always has, it always will.<\/p>\n
He rises with words that tell us that vengeance begets vengeance; it always has, it always will.<\/p>\n
He rises with words that tell us that wars are “no more won than are earthquakes.”<\/p>\n
He rises with a reminder that when deciding what to do, cowardice asks, ” Is it politic?”, vanity asks, “Is it popular?”, conscience asks, “Is it right?”.<\/p>\n
He rises with words to challenge the morality that plants miles of mines instead of yards for play.<\/p>\n
He rises with words that name the lies of moral pygmies who say it is worth it to sacrifice the lives of Iraqi children to punish corrupt politicians.<\/p>\n
He rises with words which claim every person behind every border as brother, sister, mother, father, child and friend.<\/p>\n
He rises with words that “startle like a trump of coming judgment.” He rises with words like a “fire bell in the night.”<\/p>\n
(Among those who rise here with Dr. King, are Maria Child, Elizabeth Heyrick, Bishop Tutu, Bishop Romero, William Faulkner, Jeannette Rankin, Frederick Douglass, David Walker and Thomas Jefferson.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Now that he is safely dead
\nLet us praise him
\nbuild monuments to his glory
\nsing hosannas to his name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"series":[],"yoast_head":"\n