A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present. America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay.
Interpretation
Society tends to ignore its historical wrongs, but the effects of those wrongs can linger and demand acknowledgment.
This quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. highlights the tendency of societies to mask or forget their misdeeds in order to move on. However, the consequences of past injustices remain alive and impactful in the present. King emphasizes that the ongoing struggles against systemic injustices mean that a society must confront and address its past wrongs rather than sweep them under the rug. He suggests that true justice requires acknowledging these ugly truths.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of historical awareness.
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.
How does it feel, how does it feel to be without a home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone.
If everyone in the world sat quietly at the same time, closed their eyes and concentrated as hard as they could on peace and goodwill, all the killing and cruelty in the world would continue. And probably increase.
God reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists.
For men in a state of freedom had thatch for their shelter, while slavery dwells beneath marble and gold.
An open society is a society which allows its members the greatest possible degree of freedom in pursuing their interests compatible with the interests of others.
The world doesn't want to be punished. It wants to remain in darkness. It doesn't want to be told that what it believes is false. If you also don't want to be corrected, then you might as well leave the church and spend your time at the bar and brothel. But if you want to be saved-and remember that there's another life after this one-you must accept correction.
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