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100 ˜ A Work of Hospitality, 1982–2002
ucation and knowledge, which brings sisters and brothers together as we work
for justice. Transportation must be a human right in this mobile society. Did
you know that there are fifteen thousand people in this city who must take a cab
to get to Grady Hospital Do you know why health care costs so much Why do
we charge somebody to get on a MARTA bus It ought to be free for us all.
Human mobility is a need that ought to be a right in the American Constitution.
How are we poor people going to get to Washington We don’t need to follow
a mule. We can all ride up there together. It ought to be a right. It ought to
be a right.
Finally, let us reflect as we think about the bicentennial of the American
Constitution: not only do we need the separation of church and state, but we
need the right to good work. People do not need to produce bombs or work
with acids or with waste that will not rot. We need the right to work in ways
that build the Beloved Community, that nurture children, that care for the elderly,
that visit the sick and make the weak strong. Good work needs to be a
human right in this society. During this two-hundredth-anniversary year of the
American Constitution, more and more people are underemployed, and those
of us who find jobs are working more and more in death production. Let’s stop!
We can stop it!
Poverty—we can get rid of 37.5 percent of the homeless in this city tomorrow,
and even more than that within a few months if we had a minimum wage
that was a living wage instead of a death wage. We need to pay people an
amount that is not only fair but that re-creates the economic order and brings
an equitable redistribution of goods. Yes, we want to work in ways that build
families, that build homes, that build justice, that make for peace. A minimum
wage of ten dollars an hour is the bottom line when we seek life and fairness.
Our response to homelessness must be the eternal struggle for love and justice.
We must put together love and justice, because love without justice is a sentimentality
that we want nothing of. And justice without love becomes political
infighting, ego-tripping, a dead society. We want love and justice together. We
will walk together the road toward freedom as we love one another and struggle
for justice. So, let me say, I want to invite all of you to come on March 15, 1988,
to the opening of the Al Smith Memorial Park. And we’d better come together
and celebrate love and justice in Al Smith Park. We’ll dance and we’ll holler and
we’ll be together and then we’ll hear the Republicans and the Democrats both
saying, “The main part of our platform is human rights and equality with a roof
over every head, a job for every hand, food for every stomach, education for
every mind, medicine for every illness, and a bus token for every trip.”