The Power Of A Dream

Yesterday we celebrated 50 years since the "I have a dream" speech was given by Dr. Martin Luther King.  This speech always resonates with me as I'm sure it does most listeners.  I think this speech would've been much different if Dr. King had said, "I have an opinion" or "I have a right" or "I had a thought"....no...nothing is more inviting or inspiring as someone telling you of their dreams.

The anniversary of this famous speech this year really took a hold of me for many reasons - I just saw "The Butler" (a wonderful fim) with my boyfriend, I have been reading about Dr. King recently, I work at a place that advocates and actively fights for social change, and I am absolutely in love with a man whom 50 years ago I might not have been able to have a public relationship with (based on the color difference in our skin.) 

In my Policy and Parameters class on Tuesday we discussed how social policies are dictated by society.  What I mean by this is while the government absolutely has the final decision on what policies will be accepted, it is society that dictates what the need is for a change to the government.  For example:  today, if you are in a marriage and your husband beats you, it's a legal problem (because domestic violence is against the law.)  50 years ago if your husband beat you, it wasn't a legal problem, it was a personal problem.  This changed when certain groups (namely the women's lib movement) decided that this wasn't just a personal problem but a problem to society.

It was in the same period that a young Carol Klein Combes (then Carol Klein) led a group of college students from Brooklyn College in the March on Washington.  Ms. Klein was raised in an Irish-German-Polish household by first generation American parents in Brooklyn where there were more "immigrants" than anything.  As a child playing in a park, Ms. Klein had the luckiest of opportunities to meet Mr. Jackie Robinson who (along with other professional baseball players who just happened to be in her neighborhood that day) played with her and her friends.  Carol came from a working-class family with a father who worked in a ship yard, she studied hard in school and made good grades; her dream was to be a teacher.  So when Carol learned of the movement that would become the famous March on Washington, she rallied her classmates and became a leader in the cause.  A few years later Ms. Klein saw that dream from childhood realized and became a teacher, educating children and sticking with her convictions.  My grandmother Carol was a fantastic lady, very strong, very opinionated, and very firm in her beliefs; she marched because she firmly believed in Dr. King's dream but also because she saw something in society that she knew deep down was wrong and decided to do something about it.  She remembered the stories that her parents and grandparents told her about "coming to America" and the stigma that they faced every day; she remembered the newspaper clipping "Help Wanted:  Irish dogs need not apply" ...she marched because enough was enough. 

It is because of the strong men and women who stood up for what is right and endured ruthless beatings, imprisonment, harassment, and being spit upon that I am the person I am today - a woman who has the right to vote, a university graduate, an advocate for social change, a theologian, and a chaser of dreams.  While at Southeastern University, our president, Dr. Mark Rutland used to give his famous "dream sermon" which encouraged every student to study what they were passionate about and to become the upstanding people that God created them to be - to be world changers.  I remember that sermon as clearly as I remember the famous words of Dr. King.  I have lived so many of my dreams; I work in a place that helps those in need, I have graduated with my Bachelor's Degree, I was accepted to graduate school and in a few months I will have attained my Master's Degree, and the greatest of all dreams I have been blessed to see fulfilled is that I have found love with the person that God has had for me all along, the person that I prayed for.

There are so many more dreams that I have; to become a Licensed Social Worker, to get married, to one day have children, to raise my children in a place where they are free to worship God and to learn as much as they can as best as they can, to love who they choose, to own my own home, to see peace in this world, to see others care for their planet and be kind to their fellow man, to see selfishness and greed abolished along with poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, violence, animal cruelty, and human trafficking among many other things. 

One dream was enough to change a nation and that dream is celebrated every day...what kind of place would the world be if you shared and actively pursued your dreams?