Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Dream On...

Dream on…

The nation will soon celebrate the birthday of one of our nations greatest leaders…Dr. Martin Luther King. Perhaps he was never president, he may not have held any high political office, but he was a leader nonetheless. His dreams of peace, for which he died, still lead the ideals of a nation – a world – that has not yet achieved them. On August 28, 1963 he delivered his “I have a dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It is one of the single most moving speeches I have ever heard – and being a drama major in undergraduate school, I have heard A LOT of speeches. I have spoken of his dream before. Here are yet a few of the words from this amazing speech.

“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”


A bit later on is one of my favorite passages from this speech…

“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.”

Yet the same paper that features the full text of this moving speech, has some of the following headlines:

“Alderman busted – when the FBI came for Ald. Arenda Troutman early yesterday morning, she didn’t answer the door-so they broke a window to get in. The South Side alderman is charged with taking thousands of dollars in bribes.”

“Woman who killed husband gets 45 years”

“U.S. blasts targets in Somalia”

…and oddly enough, what didn’t make the headlines in the paper, was that George Bush intends to escalate America’s involvement in Iraq by sending more troops. We may not be living Dr. King’s dream, but we are certainly living a nightmare. Greed, corruption, and global violence are the words of the day.

There is a scene in the animated version of “The Hobbit” by JRR Tolkein two nations are camped on the doorstep of a third. The wood elves, the men and the dwarves are all arguing over money - Greed, plain and simple just like today. All of a sudden they are faced with mutual destruction by a common enemy – the orcs. Suddenly the former enemies are friends. The wood elves that were ready to kill the humans over money now say to them “Your people have always been like brothers unto mine.”

That’s were the similarity to today’s world stops. Yes we do have a common enemy. Want a good look at the enemy? Go find a mirror. To quote Walt Kelly’s “Pogo”

”I have met the enemy and it is us.”

No we are still not living Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream – but it is time to wake up and smell the roses.

God Bless you all,

Sister Julie

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