Monday – 19 January 2009
First, I’d like to wish everyone a good Martin Luther King Day.

Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. Visit MLKDay.gov.

MLKDayAmericaServes

(Click banners for more information)

As I wasn’t sure what we’d be doing or where we would be today, I didn’t make plans to volunteer anywhere. But, SaraRules and I did decide to do something: We have collected clothing and household items that we no longer need – or have too many of – and will be taking those to the local Salvation Army in a little while. Hopefully, someone will be able to benefit from them.

Tomorrow, another piece of Dr. King’s dream will come to fruition as Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America.

Some have claimed that he is the realization of Dr. King’s dream. Some have ascribed nigh-superhuman powers to him, expecting him to stride into office and make everything alright by the sheer magnitude of his presence. Others say that the fight for equality is merely one step closer to being won rather than being something in our past:

The truth lies somewhere in the middle, I think.

The best way to respond is to say this: Barack Hussein Obama is a man. One man. A man with a vision of what he would like to see America and her citizens become. He is a man who came from a background that, not long ago, people would have easily dismissed as not being viable or suitable for becoming President of the United States of America.

But, there is where people would be wrong.

The promise of the American Dream is that anyone can aspire to – and achieve – that lofty goal, if they are willing to reach for it. Dr. King pointed it out over forty years ago. It just took time for many of us to realize it:

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, 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 and 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 be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

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

I have a dream that my four 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 the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where 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.

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 plain, 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 with which I return to the South. 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 when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a 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.

Namaste.