From the Editors

The Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is traditionally a day of relaxation, rebuilding and remembrance. I personally just took it easy and relaxed on the day of the holiday this year. But recently I spent time thinking about King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
King had a dream that one day “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.”
That does happen today between friends and even some families.
He had a dream that “one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”‘ According to laws, men are equal in their rights, but these are not always enforced.
King hoped that “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.” Today we do work together. We can pray together, but some churches choose to remain segregated. But after Sept. 11, we definitely struggle together. I think that the events of Sept. 11 have brought us closer as a nation, no matter our race, color or creed. We are fighting and struggling together.
So how close are we as a society to King’s dream almost 40 years later?
We attend a university that is racially diverse. Literally, we are living up to the dream that King had. We are able to function in a society that is not segregated. But is that all that King’s dream entailed?
There are endless factors to consider in answering that question-far too many for me to mention in this short space. I believe we are closer today to achieving his dream than we were 30 years ago, but after a class that I had on Tuesday, I realized I could be naive when it comes to that thought.
I was reminded of the prevalence of the Ku Klux Klan in the state of Georgia. I learned that they still openly hold a rally in the city of Stone Mountain every year. The law does not prohibit this rally; it only restricts the members from covering their faces. The strangest thing about this is that in King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he said, “let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!”
I don’t believe King’s dream was about different races getting along because that is what the law states. I believe his dream was about the day that we as individuals can get past the color of our skin, our religion, our social status and act as equals on our own terms as citizens.
His dream was not about an employer determining whom he or she will hire based on the color of the applicant’s skin. His dream was for everyone to have the right to be educated and to have equal opportunities in this society.
“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!’” Then we will realize King’s dream.
Ann E. Dyar

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 25 2002. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry