*INDECE SPECIAL*

It is Independence day and whichever way we want to put it, I believe we can still be grateful to God for how far he has brought us as a nation.

No matter how far we have lagged behind, i still believe the way out is not just in ranting but in always focusing& looking out for the solutions in our every sphere of national life.

Today on your *All Round Devotional*, we bring you an
Excerpted Speech from the famous Black American Baptist Minister&Activist- *Martin Luther King,Jr*.
"I've Been to the Mountaintop"Speech was delivered 3 April 1968, Mason Temple(Church of God in Christ Headquarters),Memphis,Tennesse.

*The Speech:*
_. . .The world is all messed up. The nation is sick.Trouble is in the land;confusion all around.That's a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars._

_And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding._ _Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee -- the cry is always the same:_

_"We want to be free." And another reason that I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn't force them to do it._

_Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today._

_And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn't done, and done in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed._

_Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period to see what is unfolding.And I'm happy that He's allowed me to be in Memphis._
_I can remember -- I can remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph has said, so often, scratching where they didn't itch, and laughing when they were not tickled._

_But that day is all over. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God's world._

_And that's all this whole thing is about. We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody._

_We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying -- We are saying that we are God's children. And that we are God's children, we don't have to live like we are forced to live._

_Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we've got to stay together. We've got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves._
_But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh's court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity. . ._

*SO I SAY in Kwame Nkrumah's words on 6/3/'57:*

*At long last, the battle has ended! And thus, Ghana, your beloved is free forever... We have awakened. We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now one, there is a new African in the world!*