When did this country stop believing in the dream?When did we become so mean and hypocritical that we're shameless about rounding up Mexican workers, splitting their families, dumping the dignity of America's hardest and poorest workers on the street? And these are people we've invited in to do our dirtiest work.
When did Martin Luther King's vision of a more just, humane and color-blind society become just that: his dream and not ours?
While we don the robes and carry the parchments proclaiming our advancement, it appears on the fundamental issues we've not progressed at all. Simply saying your for justice is really not the same as having the courage to fight for it.
Today, thousands are made "illegal", rounded up into concentration camps, and denied basic dignity.
Today, millions are having their spirits and backs crushed in order to further enrich a class of people whose accumulated wealth the world has never seen.
Today, yet another generation of young and disenfranchised African American boys have been plunged into "futurelessness" only to die senseless deaths in drug and gang-slayings.
Today, just like 40 years ago, we watch yet another misguided war obliterates the lives of yet another generation of America's working class boys.
Today, Americans--Progressives and Conservatives alike--stop to acknowledge a man whose dream called a nation to seek the higher ground, to act heal the nation and the world through the pursuit of peace and justice, and do better, much better.
Martin Luther King had a terribly important dream 40 year ago. But today there seems to be increasing evidence that Martin's dream was just that: his dream and not ours. Progressives and conservatives today too often warring tribes each looking to dominate the other for their own gain. Absent are true leaders showing the way to a better place for all.
This country desperately needs the vision and wisdom of new leaders. Leaders with the courage to challenge Americans to rise out of the muck of greed, hatred and war. Leaders with the audacity to reclaim the Dream.
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