My I Have a Dream Speech: I have a dream too!

My I Have a Dream Speech

I will use some of the original text, I think this is called a re-mix…LOL! Not as good as the original (nothing ever is), but my reflections on it from today’s perspective.

On September 22, 1862, a great American signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long nightmare of their captivity.

They were free, the dream had come true, everything was now possible…or so it seemed

• Maybe they dreamed they could have their families be whole and not sold away on the whims of others
• Maybe they dreamed they could have their own businesses and farms
• Maybe they dreamed they could own their own property
• Maybe they dreamed they could live in safety
• Maybe they dreamed their kids would be better educated and have better lives
• Maybe they dreamed that their kids could escape the trauma THEY experienced
• Maybe they dreamed they would finally be accepted and be known to themselves and others FULLY as men and women!
• Maybe they dreamed they could create and live in communities that THEY built and would be proud of

It has been almost 57 years since MLK’s speech and his words are still inspiring. These words are still the standard-bearer for the dream we should aspire to, but 57 years later these words mostly ring hollow.

They are hollow because since we were emancipated and since the speech:

• One hundred fifty-eight years later, Black people still are not free. Roughly one in three black males will end up in prison at some point in their lifetime.
• One hundred fifty-eight years later, Black people still have families that are in disarray. Almost 70% of our children are born to single parents
• One hundred fifty-eight years later, we still (by far) lag other communities on property ownership, business ownership and education
• One hundred fifty-eight years later, we still are talking about escaping generation trauma
• One hundred fifty-eight years later we are still fearful to leave our homes because of police AND street violence
• One hundred fifty-eight years later we STILL measure OUR success by our distance from our own people and our proximity to others.
• One hundred fifty-eight years later the true story of our ancestors is not being told fully and is being watered down to pacify the patriarchy.
• Fifty-seven years after MLK and others of all races marched, protested and sometimes even died to gain voting and civil rights for African Americans there are still NOW powerful, united, organized and determined forces that want to take us back to the day when we didn’t have them and today they are winning.
• Fifty-seven years later and we are still fighting for the same things we were fighting for on August 28, 1963. Instead, now we are fighting to keep it.
• Fifty-seven years later and we are still singing the song “We shall overcome someday”

Well….the someday needs to be now. The time for waiting is OVER. We have no more generations to give, no more years to give and we have no room or space any longer to be patient.

We need to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drugs of gradualism or bipartisanship. Now is the time to yet again make real the promises of democracy.

And the time to act is NOW! There is no tomorrow.

Our elders used this saying a LOT: “The Devil is busy”. Well, he still is!

• He is busy in the actions of those who oppose freedom for everyone
• He is busy in lulling the current generations of Black Americans to sleep thinking that the battle is won
• He is busy in the folks who look like us who keep alive the language that divides us
• He is busy in the silence of those who say they support us

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.

• Those who hope that the forces who wish to destroy our democracy and bring it to their bidding will just go away and give up will have a rude awakening if the nation attempts to return to business as usual.
• Those who have been soothed and seduced by the progress of the last 57 years will be shocked and saddened to find out that the progress that was fought for then is not permanent.
• Those who have been lulled into the delusion that everyone is in favor of the New America will be shocked to learn that the rights that have been hard fought and won must ALWAYS be fought for because the forces who want to take them away are just as powerful and sometimes more powerful than the forces who wish to continue to progress on the dream.
• Those who think that this doesn’t matter as this is not their fight will one day wake up to see their time at the end of the same sword that they didn’t stop when it impacted others. As MLK once said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead and always stay vigilant. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?”

• We can never be satisfied as long as Black people are STILL the victims of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality and sometimes vigilantism.
• We will not be satisfied when it is OK that 1.5 million Black men in their prime years are missing from everyday life due to early death and incarceration.
• We cannot be satisfied as long as African American basic mobility is STILL from poverty to lower middle class.
• We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by music, movies and television that dehumanize them by demonizing our young men and hyper sexualizing our young women. A lot of this comes from people who look like them and financed by others.
• We cannot be satisfied as long as the rights of Black people to vote are continuing to being challenged and under assault and this is being ignored because the challenge comes under nice sounding and acceptable euphemisms such as “election integrity”.
• We cannot be satisfied as long as the the rights of Black people in this country are negotiable, thus making voting for those who clearly oppose freedom for all men “on the table” as long as they fulfill on other criteria.

I am not unmindful that:

• Some of you have come to this out of great trials and tribulations.
• Some of you are plain old tired and frustrated and do not see the need to fight this battle again.
• Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom has left you frustrated by those smooth well trained and finances entities with “compelling” rhetoric that makes YOU seem like the one attacking the freedom of others.
• Some of you have family members, close friends, romantic partners and business associates who sit on the other side of this necessary struggle.

So the question is this to us all: How Long?

• For my White brothers and sisters:
  • How long will it be ok to listen to relatives, friends, co-workers and other associates spin lies and hateful messages and propose violence to and about other people and still have a safe space to do this around you?
  • How long will they propose taking their country back before you demand that they answer: From who?
  • How long will you allow those who espouse violence against Americas enemies get away without answering this: Who exactly should we shoot and why?
  • How long before you come to terms and understand that the economic and social needs of rural and urban America are exactly the same? The real battle, the real enemy is not US!
• To my Black brothers and sisters:
  • How long will it be ok for our children to be bombarded daily with music television and other shows that dehumanizes them and not only are we ok with it, we continuously justify the usage?
  • How long before we take control of our communities and be a stand that it be the place our ancestors wanted for us instead of feeling we need to leave for “safer” and “greener” pastures?
  • How long will it be before we start teaching our children the true story of their ancestors?
  • How long will it be before we become the agents of safety in our own communities? Lets not protest the police, let’s BECOME the agents of public safety.
  • How long will it be will before we honor the sacrifices of our immediate ancestors, whose lives were at risk those 57 years ago and VOTE for what you want and need?
  • How long will we allow our unchallenged and INTERNAL messages of hatred and division be the voice that speaks for our community while we sit in silence and despair and linger in the damage they cause?
  • How long will it be before we realize our own power and take ahold of our own future. Yes “the system” does exist, but we are way more powerful that it!

But in the process of regaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness, division, and hatred.

While we must become yet again vigilant and forceful, let us not become a mirror of the enemy that we face.

We must not call them evil. Because they believe and were taught:

• That this multi-racial, multiethnic democracy is something to be feared and would destroy the country.
• That the influx of “others” threatens them and their families.
• That men from other races threaten the safety of their women and children.
• That only THEIR men can and will keep them safe.

They are not EVIL, they are like all of us: They just want the world to be a safe place for their families and like us, would do anything we have to do to make happen.

The changing world occurs to them as frightening and it is seen as a threat to their safety.

Instead of labeling them as evil and dumb, we should work, when possible, to unteach what has been taught.

If we want change and transformation, we need to be the change, listen to their fears then we may get the opportunity and take that message back to ALL of our communities and be heard.

I say to you today, my friends, that even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, 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.” And that this means ALL men, not just the ones who look like the founders.
• I have a dream that one day Black children will grow up knowing that they were born of the legacy of kings and queens, heroes and heroines and not slaves, thugs and other names
• I have a dream that one day Black children will grow up learning that they are the author of their own lives and their own freedom and they do not need others to free them.
• I have a dream that one day black children will no longer live in the trauma of the past, but grow up in families and communities that are whole, complete, safe and loving.
• I have a dream that our boys and men can walk the streets of America viewed as real humans and not objects of fear.
• I have a dream that black boys and girls can walk out their doors and their parents will know they will come home safe and not worry if they will be victimized by the police or the streets.
• I have a dream that one day, ALL Americas children will grow up in a world knowing that Americas heroes were diverse and that EVERYONE, of all colors and nationalities contributed to making America Great! Because then and ONLY then can little black boys and black girls be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as TRUE sisters and brothers.
• I have a dream that the multi-racial, multi ethnic democracy most of us envision will be viewed by all as a source of our strength instead of something be be feared.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream and believe that if we take this on NOW that 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 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 then join together in the Negro national anthem and can internalize this verse and by educating ALL our children of the true history know what it means:

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered
Out from the gloomy past
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast

And if America is to continue to aspire to be a great, diverse and powerful nation that can be held up as the standard-bearer for freedom for the world this must become true.

We must demand that freedom ring everywhere and for everyone and all the time and settle for nothing less especially when the freedom threatened is not our own.

And then, once we are ALL free… we will stay vigilant, stay focused and continue the journey because freedom and peace is not a destination to attain once and then declare victory, but a way of being that will enable future generations to make sure what every child that is born free remains so and those that are not, are granted it.

Then we will ALL have the home shared in the dream almost 57 years ago.

I will also say and ask this:

• Everyone is welcome in MY America!
• Am I welcome in yours?