Make dream a reality

“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.”

So started the indelible “I Have a Dream” speech of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Aug. 28, 1963. The words of this speech and the March on Washington still are looked to today for inspiration.

On Saturday, many people in this country will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of that march and that speech. We hope everyone takes a moment on this day to reflect on the strives our country has made since that day and how far we have yet to go.

This speech must not be forgotten because its importance has not swayed since that memorable August day 30 years ago. Saturday should be a time when everyone thoroughly reads this historical speech and thinks about how its message should be followed today.

Because we do have far to go before King’s ultimate dream becomes a reality. It would be wonderful to be able to say King’s dream that his “… 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” has come true.

But we all know there are still people in parts of this nation who judge others by their skin color. As long as these people still exist, we cannot stop working to make this nation a place King, if he were alive today, would be able to look at and smile knowing his dream had come true.

It should not take Saturday for the words of King to be honored and remembered. These words should be with us all every day of the year.

The more we think and talk about King’s goal, the closer we can come to making it a reality.

No words could sum up the importance of King’s dream better than the words of King himself …

“And when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children—black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Catholics and Protestants—will be able to join hands and to sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”