And one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy.
Interpretation
This quote challenges the reader to consider the systemic issues of poverty and wealth distribution in America.
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s quote encourages a critical examination of the economic structures contributing to poverty in America. By questioning the existence of forty million poor people, he highlights the need to analyze the broader implications of wealth distribution within a capitalistic economy, prompting reflections on social justice and economic equality.
In practice
During a speech on social justice, one might quote this to illustrate the need for economic reform.
This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.
Music is the best consolation for a despaired man
We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
Israel... is one of the great outpost of democracy in the world
One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
Ah! How I hate the crimes of the new generation: they are dry and sterile as darnel.
If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.
It is my eyes which see, and the sight of my eyes grants beauty to the earth. It is my ears which hear, and the hearing of my ears gives its song to the world. It is my mind which thinks, and the judgement of my mind is the only searchlight that can find the truth. It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is the only edict I must respect.
Motherfuckers will read a book that’s one third Elvish, but put two sentences in Spanish and they [white people] think we’re taking over.
One of God's central qualities is compassion, a word that in Hebrew is related to the word for "womb." Not only is compassion a female image suggesting source of life and nourishment but it also has a feeling dimension: God as compassionate Spirit feels for us as a mother feels for the children of her womb. Spirit feels the suffering of the world and participates in it. . . .
Misery, mutilation, destruction, terror, starvation and death characterize the process of war and form a principal part of the product.
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