I have a dream

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so 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."

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is today. On Friday at work we received an email from our Administrator, Juan Garcia, encouraging us to read King's I Have a Dream speech. Now usually when we get these rah-rah emails at work I just delete them, but for some reason I decided to read over his speech.

Its really amazing how far we have come since King stood up in front of all those people and told us about his dream.

I believe that this his speech still has elements that apply to us today. 

We are facing some of the biggest difficulties that this Nation has ever seen and even though the point of his speech so many years ago was civil rights, our fight today is much more than civil rights. Let all all "rise up and live out the true meaning our country's creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." I think that sometimes we have turned too far in the other direction. We need to truly treat everyone equal, so long as they have not done things to not deserve equal treatment.

So as we reflect on MLKs life today and how his thoughts might apply to our Nation's problems of today, I'll leave you with the following thoughts from a man to impacted our country so many years ago.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. 

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. 

 We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.