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Dick Van Dyke Makes Rare Appearance to Promote Voting in 2024 Election
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Dick Van Dyke Makes Rare Appearance to Promote Voting in 2024 Election

Dick Van Dyke To celebrate Election Day, he took a trip down memory lane.

The 98-year-old actor shared a video. instagram on Monday, November 4, the day before the presidential election, to encourage his followers to vote for the Democratic candidate. Kamala Harris.

In the video, Goodbye Birdie reconsidered a speech written by star Twilight ZoneRod Serling presented with him at a civil rights event in Los Angeles on May 31, 1964 Martin Luther King Jr..

“50 years ago, on May 31, 1964, I stood at the podium with Dr. Martin Luther King addressing nearly 60,000 people at the Coliseum in Los Angeles,” he says in the video. “And I was there to read a message that Rod Serling wrote.”

He later said he posted the speech “the other day” and thought it was “just as meaningful today as it was then, but not as much.”

The actor continued: “If you don’t mind, I’d like to read it.”

Van Dyke began reading the speech, which began: “Hatred is not the norm. Prejudice is not the norm. Suspicion, dislike, jealousy (and) scapegoating, none of these are transcendent aspects of the human personality. They are diseases, cancers of the soul.”

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The six-time Emmy winner continued to discourage negative sentiment, saying: “These are contagious, contagious viruses that have been bleeding humanity for years. And because they are, and because they are, do they have to be that way? I think no.

Dick Van Dyke at a rally in 1968.

Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection via Getty


Speaking optimistically, Van Dyke said, “If there is one voice left to say ‘welcome’ to a stranger, if there is one hand left outstretched to say ‘come in and share’, if there is one mind left to contemplate the thought of warmth and friendship.” Then there is a future in which there will be more than one hand, more than one person, more than one mind dedicated to the cause of human equality.”

The actor continued: “To those who tell us that inequality between humans and animals is a necessary evil, we must first respond by saying that it is bad but not necessary.”

Van Dyke concluded his video by looking at how things have changed over the decades. “1964. A lot has happened, not as much as Martin Luther dreamed, but it’s a start,” he said. “Thank you, God bless.”

Mary Poppins Star also revisited the speech ahead of the 2016 election. At that time, he shared a photo of the 1964 incident and wrote: Facebook“I was going to the Bernie Sanders rally at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The last time I was there, I was giving a beautifully written speech by Rod Serling with Martin Luther King on behalf of the Civil Rights Movement.”

Dick Van Dyke at the 2024 Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

JC Olivera/Variety via Getty


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Van Dyke hasn’t been getting much attention lately. in september canceled an appearance At the FanX Salt Lake City Comic Convention in Utah, a few days after his absence 2024 Emmy Awardswhere was it It is planned to be a server. He was noticed Running errands in Malibu same month, not long after Winning a Daytime Emmy and I’m watching the birthday special Win a Creative Arts Emmy Award.