In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, I present thoughts of mine modeled by his own.
I am not unmindful that some of the very people I refer to will only prove this to be true.I am not unmindful that some of us undergo great trials and tribulations. Some of us get battered by the storms of distraction and staggered by the winds of thoughtlessness. Some of us have been the veterans of prolonged struggles, and will continue to do what is right because it is right.
We go back to our homes. We go back to our places of work and worship. We go back to our dreams and memories, hoping that somehow this situation can and will be changed. We tried to not wallow in the valley of despair, but it is difficult.
I say to you today, people who are taking the time to listen, that even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the idea of making as much of life as we can.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up from its common cowardice and admit to one another that we are not worth our own time, or learn to set aside the time that we wish for us to have set aside for us.
I have a dream that one day we will spend our energies solving and preventing problems, instead of exhausting ourselves running away.
I have a dream that we not put off until tomorrow what should be accomplished today.
I have a dream that we will pursue the contents of our own character, instead of the path of least resistance.
I have a dream today.
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Thank you Martin Luther King Jr. I also give thanks to the fates that took him when they did, sparing him a life of disappointment seeing his dream go unfulfilled. I hope his express lane to the hereafter was suitable for one who fought for non-violence, stared his own death in the face and found the strength to console his followers, and was courageous enough to stand for the benefit of the many without seeking vengeance from the few.
“We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.” [MLK-1963]
January 2012.