The Dream Not Yet Realized; The Nightmare Continues

For today, in recognition the 78^th anniversary of the birth of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I considered simply posting a video of all or portions of the “I Have a Dream” speech delivered by Dr. King in 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington.

However, as Googled the possible videos and read many of the racist and ugly comments made about Blacks in general and Dr. King specifically, I again realized that his dream of the day when all of God's children — black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics—will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" is not yet with us, but the nightmare of prejudice, hatred, and oppression continues in our midst.

Martin Luther King had a dream—and that dream will not die. Martin Luther King, like his mentor, Mohandas K. Gandhi, is dead—murdered—but the dream is not. That dream lives in the hearts of many, many people throughout the world. The dream—that one day we will all sit down at one table as equals, not separated by race, religion, or wealth—remains with many of us. And as it is with the Kingdom of God, we must live and act as if the dream in fulfilled—joining with all of God’s children in unity and solidarity—until the dream is reality.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.