I Have A Dream
This weekend I have been thinking, watching, and reading about the man whom this holiday weekend is celebrated for. There wasn't much new I didn't know already or hadn't heard at some point in my life. Yet it was good to remember just how far we have come from his I Have A Dream speech which he gave to more than 200,000 people from the steps of the Washington Monument in 1963. It was also sobering to think of how far we have yet to go.
So many great spiritual and moral leaders, and just good-hearted people have tried over the thousands of years of our civilization to get us to put away our petty differences. So many have died at the hands of the violence they fought so mightily against. Yet today, all over the world, the powerful thrive while the weak suffer. Today as I write this a family in North Korea divides their last four grains of rice amongst themselves and boil a tin cup of water over a candle to cook those four grains. As I write, a Russian girl is lured to a good "job" in Europe or Asia or even the United States. She'll find out soon enough there was no job and she was sold to a pimp who will dehumanize her, treat her worse than an animal, and rent her by the hour for his benefit. Today in Africa, a toddler will watch his mother die of the AIDS she acquired as she was gang-raped by militia men who were looking for cheap thrills. No one will come for him. No one will care. He will be dead in a few days himself of malnutrition. Today women will be stoned for having had the audacity to have been raped. Children will be abused in blood-diamond mines in Africa. A Mexican mother will lose her son to a stray bullet as gangs shoot it out in her small border town. The world is a hot-mess.
Yet, amongst the tragedy and against seemingly impossible odds, men and women of all ages, races, religions, and nationalities work in their communities, in their villages and cities, sometimes with the most humble of resources to make a difference in peoples' lives. They set up shelters for women and children to feel safe from pimps and abusive relationships. They set up schools to feed the minds of the young. They help bring food and water to villages. Sometimes they simply pray for their fellow human beings or write a small check to a charity of their choosing.
Some people, do all those things and more. They dare to dream. They dare to dream that their children will not be judged by the color of their skin, the God they worship or the choice not worship one at all, their country of origin, their gender or identity, but be judged by the content of their character. Some people remind us all there is still work to do, but together we can succeed. Some people were larger than life and yet the most humble among us. Martin Luther King Jr. was one such man. It is in his honor I hope to keep "hope" alive.
Friends, as long as one man or woman stands against evil on this earth we have a chance. A chance to not just live out the greatness of our country, but the greatness of something much larger, the human race. We can do so much, together. Please, give what you can and not just your money, but your time. Embrace your fellow man and woman. We are all we've got. We live or die together in the end. I choose to live!
So many great spiritual and moral leaders, and just good-hearted people have tried over the thousands of years of our civilization to get us to put away our petty differences. So many have died at the hands of the violence they fought so mightily against. Yet today, all over the world, the powerful thrive while the weak suffer. Today as I write this a family in North Korea divides their last four grains of rice amongst themselves and boil a tin cup of water over a candle to cook those four grains. As I write, a Russian girl is lured to a good "job" in Europe or Asia or even the United States. She'll find out soon enough there was no job and she was sold to a pimp who will dehumanize her, treat her worse than an animal, and rent her by the hour for his benefit. Today in Africa, a toddler will watch his mother die of the AIDS she acquired as she was gang-raped by militia men who were looking for cheap thrills. No one will come for him. No one will care. He will be dead in a few days himself of malnutrition. Today women will be stoned for having had the audacity to have been raped. Children will be abused in blood-diamond mines in Africa. A Mexican mother will lose her son to a stray bullet as gangs shoot it out in her small border town. The world is a hot-mess.
Yet, amongst the tragedy and against seemingly impossible odds, men and women of all ages, races, religions, and nationalities work in their communities, in their villages and cities, sometimes with the most humble of resources to make a difference in peoples' lives. They set up shelters for women and children to feel safe from pimps and abusive relationships. They set up schools to feed the minds of the young. They help bring food and water to villages. Sometimes they simply pray for their fellow human beings or write a small check to a charity of their choosing.
Some people, do all those things and more. They dare to dream. They dare to dream that their children will not be judged by the color of their skin, the God they worship or the choice not worship one at all, their country of origin, their gender or identity, but be judged by the content of their character. Some people remind us all there is still work to do, but together we can succeed. Some people were larger than life and yet the most humble among us. Martin Luther King Jr. was one such man. It is in his honor I hope to keep "hope" alive.
Friends, as long as one man or woman stands against evil on this earth we have a chance. A chance to not just live out the greatness of our country, but the greatness of something much larger, the human race. We can do so much, together. Please, give what you can and not just your money, but your time. Embrace your fellow man and woman. We are all we've got. We live or die together in the end. I choose to live!
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