1.19.04 work

In grade school we watched a film strip of Martin Luther King Jr. giving his most famous speech and the phrase I have a dream made a strong and lasting impression on me.

The message I gleaned from the crinkly film strip was solid: it is necessary to appreciate the progress made in the past but we must also maintain constant vigilance in demanding more. We must work as hard as we can, in every part of our lives, to improve the world we have been given and create change. There is a moral imperative to engage in the struggle.

I can see and appreciate the glacial pace of progress, the things that are different now because of the civil rights movement, the free speech movement, and all the other philisophical and action-based movements that intersected in the past century. But I know - in a distinct, urgent way - that it isn't enough. The dream hasn't been realized. And even in a time of despair, of war and economic collapse, we have to keep trying, keep dreaming. Dr. King embodied not only an ideal but an example - of hard work and persistent action.

The King Center

Brother Outsider

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