August 28/13

The orange kitchen can wait.

While at work this afternoon, I remembered that I had a couple of episodes of The Rachel Maddow Show waiting on my phone, so I put them on while I worked, and I've never been more glad that I did.  I get the TRMS podcasts the day after broadcast, and sometimes I don't pay as close attention to them while I work, instead listening for keywords or something, but when I heard Rachel announce that MSNBC had co-secured the extremely rare rights to re-broadcast in its entirety the Martin Luther King, Jr. I have a dream speech on the 50th anniversary tomorrow night, I bolted upright.  This was yesterday's broadcast, so that meant the speech would be aired tonight!

I knew we had plans to go to the mall to grab a few things, and then I had to start priming the kitchen walls (see yesterday's entry), and also, we don't subscribe to MSNBC on our cable box because it's prohibitively expensive to do so, but come hell or high primer, I was watching that speech.

I have been able to find a somewhat unreliable live stream of MSNBC online in the past, so I hoped it would come through for me tonight.

I started the cutting work in the kitchen, enjoying the first coat of primer as it wiped out the edges of the orange on the walls, but as 8 pm inched closer, I started pestering Etienne with time checks.  What time is it now?  How about now?  At about five minutes to eight, I took a quick break to jump off the countertop and run into the bedroom to search for the feed.  And it worked!  I dashed back up on to the countertop and raced to finish the first coat of cutting before the speech began.  I made a mess of the last bit, but it's primer...a mess doesn't make a difference!

Then I hauled my busted-ass laptop over to the living room, and Etienne and I sat and watched.

It was breathtakingly powerful, and I couldn't stop the tears from welling up in my eyes.  It's one thing to read the text of the speech, which sounds so inspiring, but to hear him speak those words in his measured, deep tones, rising and falling until reaching that last awe-inspiring crescendo, and the crowd reacting to the speech at various points...it's a moment in time we as people and society should all see and hear, because it reminds us all of the importance of working for a just and equal society.

I have a dream...

...I Wish you were here.