I have a Dream

January 16th, 2012 by

This week my 11-year-old son studied Dr. Martin Luther King in honor of his birthday.

I peeked in on him while he was staying up late to finish up his paper.  He was on his computer and played parts from the ” I Have a Dream” speech over and over again.

I sat down with him and we talked about it. My son said it was sad that black people were treated so horribly. I agreed that it was a disgrace and I was very sad too, however I was concerned that my son seemed to have the idea that:  That was then and this is now, and that everything is just fine and satisfactory today.

We talked more about it, and he understands that:

While we have come a long way from the days of the civil rights movement and so much farther from when “.. millions of Negro slaves … had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.” ; we still have a long way to go to get to the “day when all of God’s children – black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics – will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual”.

While laws in the U.S. have been made to make most of us equal by law, we are not yet “free”.

Sadly, we will not be free until we really can all join hands, all of us, and be completely blind to our differences.  Judged only for the people that we are, our thoughts; words; and deeds, not for the color of our skin, our religious beliefs, or other private matters.

I’m so grateful for the words that you; Dr. Marin Luther King Jr. so eloquently delivered on that hot August day in 1963, and everything that you did in your life time to help all people.

I believe that one day we will say, “Thank God almighty, we are free at last.”

* All quotes in red are from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s  ” I have a Dream” speech. Photo of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from Wikipedia