what with today marking the birth of one of America's absolute finest, i thought i'd take a moment to discuss the art of oratory. earlier on with a friend, i dilemminized over whether or not MLK came up with his own words himself or if he had a speech writer in the wings - imagine all those years and replays and thousands of various deconstructions later and it turns out that the "i have a dream" speech was written by some scruffy hipster who just happened to land the "write" gig right out of college?? obviously, we decided this couldn't possibly be the case, but once again, we had to sadly face the fact that not only do we not have anyone cool to rally around and thank and lead a cause for us, but people just can't even speak for shit anymore. we can't speak, we can't think, we can't do...
i worried and worried until NPR played a few clips of King speaking frankly at some event he was at, before "I have a dream". i don't know if it was scripted or spontaneous, but the whole short sentence of it practically brought me to my knees and so i realized, who cares?? the man was magic.
abracadabra doesn't quite seem to do the trick anymore.
