The Dream - Joining Hands in Unity

Prologue

The picture above is at the exact location where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the “I Have A Dream Speech” on August 28, 1963. When I was looking for the spot at the Lincoln Memorial, some high school kids were standing on the spot. I asked them to move so I could take the picture and then I asked the students if they realized the meaning of this location and they just gave me blank stares. Their teacher standing next to them said "don't blame me, I am their science teacher."

Introduction

“And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men [and women] and white men [and women], Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics [and even those who do not believe], will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been 88 today on January 15, 2017. In his honor, each year at this time, I try to read his “I Have A Dream Speech” given August 28, 1963.

https://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf

On this Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday remembrance, we need to remember what he did for our country. He fought for freedom with words and not with violence or hatred. As he stated: “In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”

In today's polarized world and a world of inequality, let us consider how we may help those in the valley of despair.

“knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men [and women] are created equal." …

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

So let us live a life of integrity and dignity so our character is a beacon for those around us, and let us be very careful when we judge another person. Even if someone’s character is the issue, would we judge that person the same way we would judge our children, our family or friends? We want mercy for ourselves and those we love and we want justice for others – maybe especially if they are of a different political party, race, or religion or different in some other way. Let us be quick to show mercy and understanding and remember “that all men [and women] are created equal.” 

Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass are examples of great men and women whose lives matter by giving freedom to others. May we all strive to live such a life that matters.

Epilogue

In the book, Infinite Progress: How the Internet and Technology Will End Ignorance, Disease, Poverty, Hunger, and War by Byron Reese, he tells the following story:

“In 1981, a businessman named Eugene Lang returned to the elementary school he had attended fifty years earlier in East Harlem. He was to give a talk to the graduating sixth-grade class. His prepared speech could be summed up as “Work hard and you will succeed.” But before he spoke, he chatted with the principal of the school who informed him that only a quarter of these students would finish high school.

This struck Lane so much that he changed his speech. He told the kids about seeing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’ s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 in Washington, DC. He told the kids they should dream their own dreams, and he would help them achieve them. Then he dropped his bombshell: He promised free college tuition to any of his audience that stayed in high school and graduated. He hired a full-time program coordinator to work with the kids and he then partnered with a local organization that provided support to the kids through high school graduation.

So what do you think happened to these kids? Kids who now had a real reason to hope and believe in their future? Well, of the sixty-one original ones, the organization has stayed in contact with fifty-four. Of those fifty-four, 90 percent graduated high school or got their GED (not the 25 percent the principle had predicted to Lang years earlier), and 60 percent went on to college. Almost all of the students hold fulfilling jobs and many of the ones that are now parents vow they will be sending their children to college.

The success of this program has caused it to spread around the country. There are now about two hundred “I Have a Dream” programs in twenty-seven states helping 15,000 “Dreamers.” This is the power of hope. Not hope as an empty wish, but hope as rational thing, a reasoned belief in a better tomorrow."