Martin Luther King Jr. interpretation

”This evening I would like to use this lofty and historic platform to discuss what appears to me to be the most pressing problem confronting mankind today. Modern man has brought this whole world to an awe-inspiring threshold of the future. He has reached new and astonishing peaks of scientific success. He has produced machines that think and instruments that peer into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space. He has built gigantic bridges to span the seas and gargantuan buildings to kiss the skies. His airplanes and spaceships have dwarfed distance, placed time in chains, and carved highways through the stratosphere. This is a dazzling picture of modern man’s scientific and technological progress.
Yet, in spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.-Martin Luther King Jr.”

Prompt 1:

Write a brief essay explaining your understanding of Dr. King’s message. Support your ideas with evidence from the speech. Include an analysis of how these issues have evolved since Dr. King delivered this address over 40 years ago.

Martin Luther King Jr. was pointing out that we have airplanes,space shuttles,skyscrapers, cars, even computers that could calculate almost any problem and yet there was still racism, white only stores, buses that you had to give up your seat to a white person if you were black. Basically even though we had abolished slavery we were still treating black people like crap and he pointed out that so many technological advancements had happened just imagine how many more will be accomplished if every one was treated equal and if not improvements to the others. Motorcycles back then were not even dreamed about, even regular cars were prone to breaking down and they did not get very good gas mileage. Now, at this day and age there are flip-phones more powerful than the computers, racism is now looked down upon, and we are able to do things that he couldn’t dream of. I am certain that if he could see what man has accomplished he would be more than proud, I think he would cry in joy. Please, who ever reads this put your interpretation in the comments.