Today being MLK day and all…
I was listening to the radio on my drive home today, and — seeing as it’s MLK day — it didn’t surprise me at all to hear the “I have a dream speech”. What did surprise me after listening for two minutes or so was that it was his speech in its entirety. Now, like just about everyone, I’ve heard various excerpts and read passages of this speech over the years in school, in the newspaper, etc. Everyone knows the “not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” part, for instance. But it was particularly interesting to me to realize that I don’t think I’d ever before sat for the 15 minutes or so that it goes on and listened to the whole thing. Wow! This man is a truely remarkable speaker. He has a very engaging speaking style and a way with words that is just beyond belief. No wonder folks were so galvanized by his speaking all over the country!
[Edit: the audio at the 2nd link above doesn’t appear to work, but here’s another place to get the full speech audio]
Jodi said,
January 17, 2006 at 1:30 pm
I remember visiting San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens (http://www.yerbabuenagardens.com) and reading Dr. King’s quotes scattered about the park around the waterfall. They were quotes taken from various speeches (not just the “I have a dream” speech), and they were all extremely eloquent examples of his mastery of English.