Dreams and Nightmares

A certain anniversary occurred today. The serpent was not around at the time but has good reason to suspect that 28th August 1963 was also a Wednesday. Radio National has been celebrating for the last few weeks. The event in question was the civil rights march on Washington where the preacher Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech

Today’s radio story talked about the events in the 1950s including the bus boycotts and sit ins. I grew up with the images of the water hoses and snarling dogs let loose upon the protestors. Especially interesting was the tactic of non violent resistance which is much harder than it looks. Suppressing one’s natural impulse to beat the shit out of anyone who hits you or spits in your face would take a serious amount of self discipline.

Half a century later it still gets rated as one of the best speeches of all time in the English speaking world. You don’t have to be black, American or Christian to appreciate its elegance and passion. You probably don’t even need to understand English to appreciate its significance as it depends so much on repetition of ideas rather than rhyming for its effect so would probably do well in translation


It was so unusual to find a leader who did not want to play by the old rules of ‘Divide and conquer’ or “If you are not with us, you are against us” and the old favourite “Four legs good, two legs bad”
The idea of appealing to the better side of not just your own followers but your oppressor too and actually getting results that way was truly unusual and inspiring. Dr King had well and truly been studying the power tactics of Jesus Christ

Some 45 years later along comes Barack Obama with the beautiful voice and eloquent speeches. But they turned out to be all hot air and empty words. Even worse, he wants to build his heavenly city with stones stolen from its very foundation. Recent events in Cairo have made such a mockery of his words there some years ago.

( Not so pretty Polly Waffle )

PS Updated to include two dream kitchen make overs for the Lodge

Kitchen Cabinets and other cute IKEA accessories

Dreams and Nightmares

A certain anniversary occurred today. The serpent was not around at the time but has good reason to suspect that 28th August 1963 was also a Wednesday. Radio National has been celebrating for the last few weeks. The event in question was the civil rights march on Washington where the preacher Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech

Today’s radio story talked about the events in the 1950s including the bus boycotts and sit ins. I grew up with the images of the water hoses and snarling dogs let loose upon the protestors. Especially interesting was the tactic of non violent resistance which is much harder than it looks. Suppressing one’s natural impulse to beat the shit out of anyone who hits you or spits in your face would take a serious amount of self discipline.

Half a century later it still gets rated as one of the best speeches of all time in the English speaking world. You don’t have to be black, American or Christian to appreciate its elegance and passion. You probably don’t even need to understand English to appreciate its significance as it depends so much on repetition of ideas rather than rhyming for its effect so would probably do well in translation


It was so unusual to find a leader who did not want to play by the old rules of ‘Divide and conquer’ or “If you are not with us, you are against us” and the old favourite “Four legs good, two legs bad”
The idea of appealing to the better side of not just your own followers but your oppressor too and actually getting results that way was truly unusual and inspiring. Dr King had well and truly been studying the power tactics of Jesus Christ

Some 45 years later along comes Barack Obama with the beautiful voice and eloquent speeches. But they turned out to be all hot air and empty words. Even worse, he wants to build his heavenly city with stones stolen from its very foundation. Recent events in Cairo have made such a mockery of his words there some years ago.

( Not so pretty Polly Waffle )

PS Updated to include two dream kitchen make overs for the Lodge

Kitchen Cabinets and other cute IKEA accessories