MLK

Are there even words to describe what this man did for our nation, and our world?  I don't know if I have them.  Today I watched his infamous "I Have A Dream" speech.  Although Martin Luther King Jr. gave many, many speeches (2500 between 1957 and 1968), this one is the most renowned as well as possibly the most powerful.  There were 250,000 people there, black and white on the day of August 28, 1963.  This was almost unheard of.

Every year on this day I try to listen to this speech, and every year it makes me cry as well as give me goosebumps.  Not only was Dr. King an inspiring public speaker, he was an ambassador of peace.  He knew exactly what needed to change and in fact, knew how it needed to be changed.  I only wish I had been there when he had given this speech.

But I have to wonder, would I have been there, or even listened if I had been alive in 1963?  My parents were, but were in high school and college.  They told me they didn't even know about it until after it happened.  But would I have gone?  Would I have listened?  Would I have been inspired as I am today? It all depends.  I guess we can't say, as people, "I would have done this."  If I had been raised by open-minded parents, perhaps I would have been there.  Maybe, I would have been raised by pro-segregationist parents, and thought nothing but the worst of Dr. King.  All I can hope is that I would have supported the Kings and their mission of freedom.

The line that struck me the most in the speech was this:
"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."

Any and every parent that heard this part of the speech must have been able to identify, right?  I am not a parent, but know that the love of a mother and father is one that is undeniably the most powerful in the world.

I think that's what Dr. King wanted everyone to see.  We are all the same.  We are all people, even though we may have different hair color, eye color, or skin color.  On the inside we are all God's children, we are all humans, and we all have the right to be equal, in all ways.