"Now, where are we gathered? We're standing at the steps of the United States Capitol. I'm looking at the Washington Monument and beyond it to the Lincoln Memorial and beyond that, to the left, to your right, the Jefferson Memorial. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of these United States, and he was the man who allegedly freed us. Abraham Lincoln saw in his day what President Clinton sees in this day. He saw the great divide between black and white. Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton see what the Kerner Commission saw 30 years ago when they said that this nation was moving toward two Americas, one black, one white, separate and unequal. And the Kerner Commission revisited their findings 25 years later and saw that America was worse today than it was in the time of Martin Luther King, Jr. There's still two Americas, one black, one white, separate and unequal.
Abraham Lincoln, when he saw this great divide, he pondered a solution of separation. Abraham Lincoln said he never was in favor of our being jurors or having equal status with the whites of this nation. Abraham Lincoln said that if there were to be a superior or inferior, he would rather the superior position be assigned to the white race.
There in the middle of this mall is the Washington Monument, 555 feet high. But if we put a 1 in front of that 555 feet, we get 1555, the year that our first fathers landed on the shores of Jamestown, Virginia, as slaves. In the background is the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorial. Each one of these monuments is 19 feet high. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, Thomas Jefferson the third president, and 16 and 3 make 19 again. What is so deep about this number 19? Why are we standing on the Capitol steps today? That number 19, when you have a nine, you have a womb that is pregnant, and when you have a one standing by the nine, it means that there's something secret that has to be unfolded.
Right here on this mall where we are standing, according to books written on Washington, D.C., slaves used to be brought right here on this mall in chains, to be sold up and down the eastern seaboard.
Right along this mall, going over to the White House, our fathers were sold into slavery. But George Washington, the first president of the United States, said he feared that before too many years passed over his head, this slave would prove to become a most troublesome species of property.
Thomas Jefferson said he trembled for this country when he reflected that God was just and that his justice could not sleep forever.
Well, the day that these presidents feared has now come to pass, for on this mall here we stand in the capital of America, and the layout of this great city, laid out by a black man, Benjamin Banneker, this is all placed and based in a secret Masonic ritual, and at the core of the secret of that ritual is the black man.
Not far from here is the White House, and the first president of this land, George Washington, who was a grand master of the Masonic Order, laid the foundation, the cornerstone, of this Capitol building where we stand. George was a slave-owner. George was a slave-owner.
Now, the President spoke today, and he wanted to heal the great divide. But I respectfully suggest to the President, you did not dig deep enough at the malady that divides black and white in order to affect a solution to the problem. And so today we have to deal with the root so that perhaps a healing can take place.
Now, this obelisk at the Washington Monument is Egyptian, and this whole layout is reminiscent of our great historic past, Egypt. And if you look at the original seal of the United States, published by the Department of State in 1909, Gaylord Hunt wrote that late in the afternoon of July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress resolved that Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Mr. John Adams and Mr. Thomas Jefferson be a committee to prepare a device for a seal of the United States of America. In the design proposed by the first committee, the face of the seal was a coat of arms measured in six quarters. That number is significant. Six quarters with emblems representing England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, and Holland, the countries from which the new nation had been peopled. The Eye of Providence in a radiant triangle and the motto 'E Pluribus Unum' were also proposed for the face of the seal. Even though the country was populated by so-called Indians and black slaves were brought to build the country, the official seal of the country was never designed to reflect our presence, only that of the European immigrants. The seal and the Constitution reflect the thinking of the Founding Fathers that this was to be a nation by white people and for white people. Native Americans, blacks, and all other non-white people were to be the burden-bearers for the real citizens of this nation.
For the back of the seal, the committee suggested a picture of a pharaoh sitting in an open chariot with a crown on his head and a sword in his hand passing through the divided waters of the Red Sea in pursuit of the Israelites. And hovering over the sea was to be shown a pillar of fire in a cloud, expressive of the divine presence and command. And raised from this pillar of fire were to be shown beaming down on Moses standing on the shore extending his hand over the sea causing it to overwhelm the pharaoh. The motto for the reverse was 'Rebellion To Tyrants Is Obedience To God.' Let me say it again, 'Rebellion To Tyrants Is Obedience To God.' Now, why did they mention pharaoh? I heard the president say today E Pluribus Unum, out of many, one. But in the past out of many comes one meant out of many Europeans come one people. The question today is out of the many Asians, the many Arabs, the many Native Americans, the many blacks, the many people of color who populate this country, do you mean for them to be made into the one? If so, truth has to be spoken to justice. We can't cover things up, cover them over, give it a pretty sound to make people feel good. We have to go to the root of the problem.
Now, why have you come today? You came, not at the call of Louis Farrakhan, but you have gathered here at the call of God, for it is only the call of Almighty God, no matter whom- through whom that call came, that could generate this kind of outpouring. God called us here to this place at this time for a very specific reason.
And now I want to say, my brothers, this is a very pregnant moment, pregnant with the possibility of tremendous change in our status in American and in the world. And although the call was made through me, many have tried to distance the beauty of this idea from the person through whom the idea and the call was made. Some have done it mistakenly, and others have done it in a malicious and vicious manner. Brothers and sisters, there is no human being through whom God brings an idea that history doesn't marry the idea with that human being no matter what defect was in that human being's character. You can't separate Newton from the law that Newton discovered, nor can you separate Einstein from the theory of relativity. It would be silly to try to separate Moses from the Torah or Jesus from the Gospel or Mohammed from the Koran. Well, you said, ' Farrakhan, you ain't no Moses. You ain't no Jesus, and you're not no Mohammed. You have a defect in your character.' Well, that certainly may be so. However, according to the way the Bible reads, there is no prophet of God written of in the Bible that did not have a defect in his character. But I have never heard any member of the faith of Judaism separate David from the Psalms because of what happened in David's life, and you never separated Solomon from the building of the temple because they say he had 1,000 concubines. And you never separated any of the great servants of God. So today, whether you like it or not, God brought the idea through me. And he didn't bring it through me because my heart was dark with hatred and anti-Semitism. He didn't bring it through me because my heart was dark and I'm filled with hatred for white people and for the human family of the planet. If my heart were that dark, how is the message so bright, the message so clear, the response so magnificent?
And so we stand here today at this historic moment. We are standing in the place of those who could not make it here today. We are standing on the blood of our ancestors. We are standing on the blood of those who died in the middle passage, who died in the fields and swamps of America, who died hanging from trees in the South, who died in the cells of their jailers, who died on the highways and who died in the fratricidal conflict that rages within our community. We are standing on the sacrifice of the lives of those heroes, our great men and women, that we today may accept the responsibility that life imposes upon each traveler who comes this way. We must accept the responsibility that God has put upon us not only to be good husbands and fathers and builders of our community, but God is now calling up the despised and the rejected to become the cornerstone and the builders of a new world.
And so our brief subject today is taken from the American Constitution and these words, 'Toward a more perfect union.' Toward a more perfect union. Now, when you use the word more with perfect, that which is perfect is that which has been brought to completion. So when you use more perfect, you're either saying that what you call perfect is perfect for that stage of its development, but not yet complete. When Jefferson said, 'Toward a more perfect union,' he was admitting that the union was not perfect, that it was not finished, that work had to be done. And so we are gathered here today not to bash somebody else. We're not gathered here to say all of the evils of this nation, but we are gathered here to collect ourselves for a responsibility that God is placing on our shoulders to move this nation toward a more perfect union.
Now, when you look at the word toward, toward, it means in the direction of, in furtherance or partial fulfillment of, with a view to obtaining or having, shortly before, coming soon, imminent, going on, in progress. Well, that's right. We're in progress toward a perfect union. Union means bringing elements or components into unity. It is something formed by uniting two or more things. It is a number of persons, states, et cetera, which are joined or associated together for some common purpose. We're not here to tear down America. America is tearing itself down. We are here to rebuild the wasted cities. What we have in the word toward is motion. The Honorable Elijah Mohammed taught us that motion is the first law of the universe. This motion which takes us from one point to another shows that we are evolving and we are a part of a universe that is ever evolving. We are on an evolutionary course that will bring us to perfection or completion of the process toward a perfect union with God. In the word toward, there is a law, and that law is everything that is created is in harmony with the law of evolution, change. Nothing is standing still. It is either moving toward perfection or moving toward disintegration or under certain circumstances doing both things at the same time. The word for this evolutionary changing, affecting stage after stage until we reach perfection, in Arabic it is called rab, and from the word rab, you get the word rabbi, or teacher, one who nourishes a people from one stage and brings them to another stage.
Well, if we are in motion, and we are, motion toward perfection, and we are, there can be no motion toward perfection without the lord who created the law of evolution and is the master of the changes. Our first motion then must be toward the god who created the law of the evolution of our being. And if our motion toward Him is right and proper, then our motion toward a perfect union with each other and with government and with the peoples of the world will be perfected. So let us start where the process leading to the perfect union must first be seen.
Now, brothers and sisters, the day of atonement is established by God to help us achieve a closer tie with the source of wisdom, knowledge, understanding and power, for it is only through a closer union or tie with Him who created us all, with Him who has power over all things, that we can draw power, knowledge, wisdom and understanding, from Him that we may be enabled to change the realities of our life. A perfect union with God is the idea at the base of atonement.
Now, atonement demands of us eight steps. In fact, atonement is the fifth step in an eight-stage process. Look at our division, not here, out there. We, as a people who have been fractured, divided and destroyed because of our division, now must move toward a perfect union. Let's look at a speech, delivered by a white slave holder on the banks of the James River in 1712, 68 years before our former slave masters permitted us to join the Christian faith. Listen to what he said. He said, 'In my bag, I have a foolproof method of controlling black slaves. I guarantee every one of you, if installed correctly, it will control the slaves for at least 300 years. My method is simple. Any member of your family or your overseer can use it. I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves, and I take these differences and I make them bigger. I use fear, distrust and envy for control purposes.' I want you to listen. What are those three things? Fear, envy, distrust. For what purpose? Control. To control who? The slave. Who is the slave? Us. Listen. He said, 'These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies, and they will work throughout the South. Now, take this simple little list, and think about it. On the top of my list is Age, but it's only there because it starts with an A, and the second is color or shade. There's intelligence, sex, size of plantation, status of plantation, attitude of owners, whether the slaves live in the valley or on a hill, north, east, south or west, have fine hair or coarse hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action. But before that, I shall assure you that distrust is stronger than trust, and envy is stronger than adulation, respect or admiration. The black slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry it on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands of years. Now, don't forget, you must pitch the old black male against the young black male and the young black male against the old black male. You must use the female against the male, and you must use the male against the female. You must use the dark-skinned slave against the light-skinned slave and the light-skinned slave against the dark-skinned slave. You must also have your white servants and overseers distrust all blacks. But it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us. They must love, respect, and trust only us. Gentlemen, these keys are your keys to control. Use them. Never miss an opportunity. And if used intensely for one year, the slaves themselves will remain perpetually distrustful. Thank you, gentlemen.' End of quote.
So spoke Willy Lynch 283 years ago. And so, as a consequence, we, as a people, now have been fractured, divided, and destroyed, filled with fear, distrust, and envy. Therefore, because of fear, envy, and distrust, of one another, many of us as leaders, teachers, educators, pastors, and persons, are still under the control mechanism of our former slave masters and their children.
And now, in spite of all that division, in spite of all that divisiveness, we responded to a call, and look at what is present here today. We have here those brothers with means and those who have no means, those who are light and those who are dark, those who are educated, those who are uneducated; those who are business people, those who don't know anything about business; those who are young, those who are old; those who are scientific, those who know nothing of science; those who are religious, and those who are irreligious; those who are Christian, those who are Muslim, those who are Baptist, those who are Methodist, those who are Episcopalian, those of traditional African religion. We've got them all here today. And why did we come? We came because we want to move toward a more perfect union.
And if you notice, the press triggered every one of those divisions. 'You shouldn't come, you're a Christian; that's a Muslim thing. You shouldn't come, you're too intelligent to follow hate. You shouldn't come, look at what they did, they excluded women, you see?' They played all the cards. They pulled all the strings. Oh, but you better look again, Willie. There's a new black man in America today, a new black woman in America today, a new black woman in America today.
Now, brothers, there's a social benefit of our gathering here today, and that is that from this day forward we can never again see ourselves through the narrow eyes of the limitation of the boundaries of our own fraternal, civic, political, religious, street organization or professional organization. We are forced by the magnitude of what we see here today that whenever you return to your cities and you see a black man, a black woman, don't ask him, 'What is your social, political or religious affiliation, or what is your status.' Know that he is your brother, and if he needs help, you are obligated to help your brother because he is your brother. You must live beyond the narrow restrictions of the divisions that have been imposed upon us."
No comments:
Post a Comment