John Pasmore's Occassional Blog

The Fierce Urgency of Now… by John

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The fierce urgency of now collides with the fear of the unknown with Barack Obama’s campaign to become the president of the United States. Obama borrowed Dr. King’s thunder so it helps to revisit what King said in 1963.

Midway through King’s legendary speech that summer in Washington DC he offers, “We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children…It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment…

So that urgency while meant at the time for the deep racial divisions in this country can be applied to The War, the economy, the environment and the sense that somehow, as a Nation we are not what we should be nor are we heading in a direction to correct that. Barack signifies that we are radically off course. And many of us believe that. So if a solution or an answer appears in an unexpected form, one which requires trust and has some risk, well at this stage it’s worth that risk. Barack Obama has my vote. Not so much knowing that he can deliver on all those promises, but hoping.

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