Monday, January 18, 2010

Quote-ables.

"I have a dream...." -Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 18th. The day we celebrate the life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. is, in part, the reason my blog is called what it is. While I hugely admire what he did to help move our nation toward racial equality and end discrimination, that is not why my blog reads "...but I have a dream." at the top.


This post isn't about skin color or origin of birth. This post isn't even about racial equality (which I do whole heartedly believe in, thank you very much).

This post is about PASSION.

(Excerpts from a speech he gave, now remembered as the 'I have a dream Speech;'
"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 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 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." )


The thing I most respect about Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is that he was a man of great action; he saw what was wrong with his nation, his world, and actually did something to improve it.

(If you don't know who he was, or what he did, shame on you. Google him.)

In the end, he died for what he believed. April 4th, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, he was assassinated. (side note: I've been lied to by Bono my whole life. I need to tell you that Bono told me, in his song "Pride(In the Name of Love)" that "Early morning, April 4th, shot rings out in the Memphis sky..." He was shot at 6:05 pm...oh well. Good song.)

While still alive, he was the youngest man (at 35) to ever receive a Nobel Peace Prize (and he actually did stuff to earn it, but that is another story...). He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. In 1986, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a USA national holiday.

King was a radical. King was passionate.
King knew what he was made to do and he did it.

While I do not expect to be assassinated anytime soon, and while my dream isn't the same is his, I know that I was created for a purpose. I fully intend, by the grace and aid of God, to fulfill that purpose(see blog post titled "With a Pen in My Hand").
And I will not, WILL NOT, be stopped.

My name is not King, but I HAVE A DREAM.

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