My favorite place to stand in Washington is right in front of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the one with one of his most famous speeches carved into its side, a speech that was originally misquoted on the monument, which had to be some kind of historic first for monuments. What I like about standing there is that Dr. King is depicted standing sternly, arms folded. He is staring directly across the Reflecting Pond. He is staring directly at Thomas Jefferson. It is not quite a glare. It is a look of challenge and resolve at the Founder, whose image stands in a kind of temple, his brave words festooning the interior, and not one passage misquoted, either.

To stand there reminds me of my favorite passage in Dr. King's most famous speech. It's not the stirring peroration, or that line about the content of character that conservatives love to cite when clumsily trying to glom onto Dr. King's posthumous status as a toothless national icon. It came earlier in the address, in the prepared text from which Dr. King eventually took flight.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence (Yeah), they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men (My Lord), would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. (My Lord)

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Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds. [enthusiastic applause] (My Lord, Lead on, Speech, speech) But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. (My Lord) [laughter] (No, no) We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. (Sure enough) And so we’ve come to cash this check (Yes), a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom (Yes) and the security of justice.

That is the real message of that famous speech. That is the real message of the glare that Dr. King sends across the peaceful little lagoon towards the Virginian who wrote so prettily words that nobody had dared put into words before, beautiful words that his slaves could not read. That is the real message of this holiday. Dr. King was a fearsome opponent for the whiskey hours of the poker game. The bluff was called, forever.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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