I Have A Dream
Eighty-two years ago a child was born in Atlanta, Georgia to a proud Martin Luther and Alberta Williams King. A precocious boy, Martin Jr. was energetic and inquisitive and by all accounts a model student dedicated to both his family and his father's church. He was a pretty good kid.
He could have been anything but chose to follow in his father's footsteps into preaching. As a man of the cloth, he could travel this great nation and speak wherever he wanted. As long as he traveled in the back of the bus, ate at colored restaurants, drank out of the colored water fountain, and spoke on his side of the tracks. This all didn't really sit well with this young man. He found it impossible to reconcile this country was the beacon of freedom for the peoples of the world, but its own citizens of color couldn't fully enjoy its liberties.
Friends, as I regularly state in my posts, the difference between the notables in our world and the faceless masses are those two things which all people of success in any endeavor have, determination and action. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., introduced at his famous March on Washington in August of 1963 as the Moral Leader of our Nation, had determination and the courage to act.
For all of his young life, he had seen the evils of a country split in two, of a people treated like second-class citizens. There were millions of African-Americans in the country and yet precious few had the determination and courage to choose to stand up for their rights against insurmountable odds. King was one of them, and by far the greatest of them all.
While many of King's contemporaries wanted total segregation of the races and violent opposition, King followed his Christian beliefs and his heart, modeling his movement after the movements of great moral leaders around the world, most recognizably Gandhi in India. He chose the one "action" seemingly weakest of all the actions being taken at the time in efforts to gain freedoms and dignity for the black peoples of America, he chose "Nonviolent-Resistance". Seems quite ineffective when you think about it. We've been taught you win fights with fists, not "nonviolence". We win by hitting the other guy harder than he hits us. Yet King knew that is exactly what his naysayers wanted to prove their case to the world that "these people" were dangerous and needed to be contained and suppressed.
He chose the most powerful action known in human history; loving his enemy. He believed in his heart of hearts his enemy's heart would soften and someday would embrace him as a brother. He believed it so definitely he was willing to give his life for it if necessary. How many of us have that kind of conviction for anything we truly desire in our lives or those of the people around us?
King died before his dream could be fully realized and today, almost 50 years after his "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington, D.C. we are still not a perfect union.
King dreamed of a day where his children would "not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character". He longed for a day "when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to hold hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, free at last, free at least, thank God almighty we are free at last."
If someday we are to see his dreams come to pass fully, it will take more great men and women with the determination to see their convictions through, and the courage to act upon them.
After the horrific shootings in Tucson, Arizon, President Obama spoke at the memorial. He recalled the youngest of the victims, 9 year old Christina Taylor Green. He urged us to live up to that little girl's expectations of our democracy. I believe if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he would have fully supported that ideal.
Today we remember a man who was willing to act upon his convictions, determined to make a difference and help this great country be what is was meant to be. Let us in our small way, do more than sit on the sidelines of history, but do our small part in our own communities, in our own neighborhoods, and in our own homes, to make this a more "perfection union". One we can be proud to pass along to our children; that they will inherit King's dream in full.
He could have been anything but chose to follow in his father's footsteps into preaching. As a man of the cloth, he could travel this great nation and speak wherever he wanted. As long as he traveled in the back of the bus, ate at colored restaurants, drank out of the colored water fountain, and spoke on his side of the tracks. This all didn't really sit well with this young man. He found it impossible to reconcile this country was the beacon of freedom for the peoples of the world, but its own citizens of color couldn't fully enjoy its liberties.
Friends, as I regularly state in my posts, the difference between the notables in our world and the faceless masses are those two things which all people of success in any endeavor have, determination and action. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., introduced at his famous March on Washington in August of 1963 as the Moral Leader of our Nation, had determination and the courage to act.
For all of his young life, he had seen the evils of a country split in two, of a people treated like second-class citizens. There were millions of African-Americans in the country and yet precious few had the determination and courage to choose to stand up for their rights against insurmountable odds. King was one of them, and by far the greatest of them all.
While many of King's contemporaries wanted total segregation of the races and violent opposition, King followed his Christian beliefs and his heart, modeling his movement after the movements of great moral leaders around the world, most recognizably Gandhi in India. He chose the one "action" seemingly weakest of all the actions being taken at the time in efforts to gain freedoms and dignity for the black peoples of America, he chose "Nonviolent-Resistance". Seems quite ineffective when you think about it. We've been taught you win fights with fists, not "nonviolence". We win by hitting the other guy harder than he hits us. Yet King knew that is exactly what his naysayers wanted to prove their case to the world that "these people" were dangerous and needed to be contained and suppressed.
He chose the most powerful action known in human history; loving his enemy. He believed in his heart of hearts his enemy's heart would soften and someday would embrace him as a brother. He believed it so definitely he was willing to give his life for it if necessary. How many of us have that kind of conviction for anything we truly desire in our lives or those of the people around us?
King died before his dream could be fully realized and today, almost 50 years after his "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington, D.C. we are still not a perfect union.
King dreamed of a day where his children would "not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character". He longed for a day "when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to hold hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, free at last, free at least, thank God almighty we are free at last."
If someday we are to see his dreams come to pass fully, it will take more great men and women with the determination to see their convictions through, and the courage to act upon them.
After the horrific shootings in Tucson, Arizon, President Obama spoke at the memorial. He recalled the youngest of the victims, 9 year old Christina Taylor Green. He urged us to live up to that little girl's expectations of our democracy. I believe if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he would have fully supported that ideal.
Today we remember a man who was willing to act upon his convictions, determined to make a difference and help this great country be what is was meant to be. Let us in our small way, do more than sit on the sidelines of history, but do our small part in our own communities, in our own neighborhoods, and in our own homes, to make this a more "perfection union". One we can be proud to pass along to our children; that they will inherit King's dream in full.
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