Dream

Every year when we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I like to listen again to his famous speech first offered August 28, 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  During the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom he offered words that many thought became a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.  Great power reverberates through his repetition of statements beginning “I have a dream.”  

Dream is defined at dictionary.com as
1.  a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.
2.  the sleeping state in which this occurs.
3.  a object seen in a dream.
4.  an involuntary vision occurring to a person when awake.
5.  a vision voluntarily indulged in while awake; daydream; reverie.

In a sentence that touches me deeply, King states, “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.”  Perhaps this is because I have three young children of my own.  Perhaps it is because I believe deeply that every person is worthy of fair opportunities and judgments without discrimination.  Maybe it is because some sources indicate that at this point in his speech Dr. King veered from his scripted talk and went a little free-form with his passionate words.  Maybe it is because judging others on the merits of their character is the highest goal to which I strive both by encouraging strength of character and looking for it in others.  I also think it is because hope for change always gazes toward the lives of children, the future of the dream.

                                Freedom’s King

                                Oh, that King hadn’t died!  Stolen from us, shot open

                                among unkind, strewn beneath magnolias and pines

                                pursed lip lines holding to hatred that had no place

                                for seeing sweet brown face children yearning to read

                                to share spaces living with neighboring white faces

                                the rock of brotherhood, self-evident true siblings


                                sipping the cup of dignity and discipline, soul force

                                the same red blood course through passionate veins

                                amidst Bible verse and gospel strains chanted long

                                as days served for planting and growing and knowing

                                all people the image and likeness of God, one nation

                                under façade of happiness until each person’s quest

                                for quenching waters of justice, only satisfying stream

                                light dispelling hatred.  Beloved world, be the dream.