We, too, are living in an exciting era, on the cusp of change. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delineated sweepingly the long arc of freedom history, and with searing, soaring details, articulated Black American freedom struggle of the 1960s. Re-reading this through Cambodian lenses this September 2010, parallels and resonances abound for us - the echoes of excuses (private or public), of oppression, of violent tactics, of deceit but also the resounding triumphant parallels of determined spirits, enduring principles of freedom, justice, peace, unity and hope in the knowledge that the long arc of moral history bends toward justice.

I hope every Cambodian will read this, particularly the Cambodian officials, the arm-chair critics, the naysayers and the anti-change stalwarts. May all of us be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

(For those of you who are not so strong in English but more fluent in another language, you can read a translated version among 60 languages of this speech at www.thearyseng.com by clicking on the flag at the bottom right-hand corner.) -- Theary Seng, Phnom Penh, 15 Sept. 2010

Delivered 3 April 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee

Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It's always good to have your closest friend and associate to say something good about you. And Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I have in the world. I'm delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow.

Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?" I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God's children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there.

I would move on by Greece and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon. And I would watch them around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. But I wouldn't stop there.