Thursday, June 05, 2008

I Have A Dream

So today, while reading the papers on my lunch break (yes,yes, I know, how very old skool of me to be reading the newspaper while everyone else reads the news online :P) I came across this cartoon sketch from the Opinion section of the Herald Sun:

I don't know about you but this sketch to me is an indication of revelation.

When I was about 10 years old, I was watching a documentary on TV2 (Saluran Emas, oh boy! Now we are getting really old skool here) with my brother about March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. I remember asking my big brother while pointing to the TV,“Who is that guy ah?”. My brother who was only 13 at that time explained to me who he was and what he did and why he did what he did. Is my brother so smart or what?? The dude always knew so much in general knowledge I tell you. Ok let’s not stray away from the topic.

Anyway then my brother went “Shhh, listen this..” And there I was, listening to Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” for the first time. All I could think to myself at that time was “WOW” mainly because at the age of 10, my vocabulary was limited :P, but to say the least, it was the most inspiring thing that I have ever heard, ever!

“………

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today my friends - so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, 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 the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little 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 down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification - one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and 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 that I go back to the South with. 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.

……..

Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow 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!"

He had a dream…….


....and perhaps Barack Obama is close of being the living proof of that dream.........