A dream 45 years in the making

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stood in front of thousands of people in Washington, D.C. and made a speech that would out live him. A speech that changed how many people felt. For the next four generations, those who were there, and those who would hear old recordings of that speech, would believe that never in their day would they find another who could reach the people of America like this man could, and so they waited.

"...Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. 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." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. 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. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. 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 snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks 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 every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that 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!"

No one could know that at that time there was a boy just 2 years old that someday would earn the respect and admiration of the world, of great Americans that many held as their heroes. A boy that would make a quest for the Presidency of the United States of America. A boy that would become the man John McCain would say these things about on November 4, 2008, from Phoenix, Arizona.

"I called Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him on being the next President of the country that we both love. In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone, commands my respect. Not only for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American President is something that I deeply admire and commend him for achieving in this historic election and I recognize the special significance it has for African Americans..."

And so it would be that on November 4, 2008, the United States of America would, with 52% of the popular vote and 349 (with 3 states still not called) electoral votes, elect its first African American to the office of President of the United States of America. Not since the 1960s have so many citizens, between the ages of 18 and 25, cast a ballot, nor has any election before this one seen so many voters of all ages, races and creeds. This man, our next President, Barack Obama, graciously stood before a nation he gave hope back to and said this.

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible. Who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time. Who still questions the power of our democracy. Tonight is your answer! It's the answer told by lines stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen. By people who waited 3 hours and 4 hours, many for the first time their lives, because they believed that this time must be different. That their voices could be that difference. It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals, or a collection of red states and blue states. We are and always will be the United States of America!"


And so history would forever be changed, as America voted its 44th President into office on that cold fall night in November 2008.


YES WE CAN!


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Pegs