Saturday, August 28, 2010

I have a dream...

Today is the 47th anniversary of the "I Have a Dream" speach. The Civil Rights movment of Dr. King's time was marked by terrorism commited against people just because of the color of their skin.

Today, here in the small Tennessee town where I live, someone went to the lot where the new Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, doused the equipment there in gasoline, and lit it on fire.

Times change, apparently bigotry doesn't.

What's interesting if you read the original text of "I Have a Dream", Dr. King makes a statement that "if America is to be a great nation, this must become true... Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York... Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee...  From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, 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!"

Let's add to that list shall we? Let's speed up the day when all people - no matter the color of their skin, no matter who they worship or don't worship, no matter who they love - same sex, different sex, no matter their politics, anyone who wants to live their life the way they like it without harming anyone else - can stand together in brotherhood, not even aware of what makes us different. Just aware of what makes us the same.

I have a dream that one day no one will have to hide who they are because someone else thinks what they believe is more important than that person's freedom to be alive.

I have a dream that one day I will not read about another person comming home to find a swatstika burned in their yard, racist slurs carved on their door, or a noose hanging from their tree

I have a dream one day there will be no more bigotry, no matter the cause, no matter the cost.

I have a dream that one day no one will ever have to dream about freedom, because, finally, we will all be free at last.

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