I Have a Dream!

Today is Martin Luther King Day. His most famous speech was given when I was just 8 months and 2 days after I was born. What I realize today is that I have a dream. I have a dream that we will view each other as the graceful and loving beings we are.

I have a dream that right now we will be judged by the character of our souls. I dream that today we actually step up and step into the TRUTH of who we are.

I have a dream that we give unconditionally. That we love without limit. That we celebrate all that we are.

We are standing on the dawn of a new day. A day when we have a choice. We can choose to be who we have always been or we can choose to be more, live more, love more.

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King’s message was on the surface about civil rights, sure. But it was a call to action… not just for the “black folk”… A call to everyone to look into themselves. To celebrate our differences, our diversity, but also to honor and cherish what we share.

Tomorrow, ironically the day after Martin Luther King Day, we as One Nation Under GOD, will inaugurate our first non-white President. One who dares to “have a dream” and one who gives hope to Americans and all citizens of the world.

In a New York Times and CBS poll 79% of Americans feel optimistic about the next four years under Obama, the highest level of goodwill attained by any of the past five incoming presidents… They have hope.

Martin Luther King had hope and “a dream”, he was just dreaming in a time when most others were unable to believe and share this dream.

I have a Dream that the time is here when it is OK to dream big dreams and not be labled a “dreamer”. When a critical mass share a dream, a wonderful dream. To paraphrase Dorothy Gale… to live in a world where “dreams really do come true”.

Today we can take a moment and honor all who have moved beyond what’s comfortable, those who dared to dream before us, those visionaries who saw what their peers couldn’t see, who believed what no one else did and who today give us hope that finally we will see the essence of these dreams come to pass.

I have included Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech below. If you have seen it, watch it again. If you haven’t please take the time really listen to the “dream”.

Here is the transcript of most of the speech.

“…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… live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will they be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

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.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children be able to sing with new meaning “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!”

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside.

Let freedom ring,

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 white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, 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.”

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