Divine Dissatisfaction

"Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds." Swing Martin. "Let us be dissatisfied until those that live on the outskirts of hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security....Let us be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a problem but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity." King did indeed swing these words during his last presidential address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1967. I love a little bit earlier in the speech when after saying he's sticking with non-violence, he says:

"I have also decided to stick to love....And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go." Love is the one, right? So much saxophone in those wailing metaphors and then he walks just like Jimmy Garrison right back to, "I have decided to love....And the beautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love." (I'm hearing the other John's "Spiritual" right now.)

Then I have to segue to Riverside Church Apr 4, 1967, where he winds down the epic "Time To Break Silence" sermon with: "These are revolutionary times....A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all embracing and unconditional love for all men....When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life...."

And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I seriously do have a dream that those words can some day hover over the stage at the center for the study of sacred jazz while women, men and children jam, swing, sweat and stomp divine and dissatisfied. Love moving against wrong, trouble into glory hallelujah. I have decided to stick to love.

"Happy Birthday to ya..."