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February 2009
Winners - The Dream Fulfilled 2009 Essay Contest
Congratulations to the winners of The Dream Fulfilled essay contest:
1st place - Stephanie Breval with "A Dream Continued"
2nd place - Leonard Osgood with "A Dream Almost Fulfilled"
3rd place - Ida Bahri with "The Dream Fulfilled?"
A Dream Continued
By Stephanie Breval
When the American people voted President Barack Obama to office by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin, it became the beginning of a dream come true. Martin Luther King, Jr., hoped that change would soon come to America. President Obama stands for the change that America has been waiting for since President Lincoln. He gives hope that we can rise together as a nation.
The dream cannot be accomplished until everyone can pursue his or her full measure of happiness. In order to reach that, we have to be willing to work together, and no one should be forgotten. Martin Luther King III believes that his father’s dream has not been fulfilled even though a significant part of it has been. As long as more than 37 million of people are still living in poverty and others are struggling to survive in a nation so rich in life, there is still more work to be done (Edney).
The United States of America is based on the principle that all are created equal. In his inauguration speech, President Obama has urged the nation to “carry forward that precious gift that noble idea passed on from generation to generation” (Inauguration speech 2009). Many community volunteers are teaming together to help those less fortunate by collecting thousands of pounds of food, donating women’s personal care products, and also educating the community about recycling to conserve energy (Penn).
President Obama is hope for greater change to come. He is the boost we need to believe that yes, we can make a difference. Americans like Elise Jackson, Sandy Stiner, and Camealia Murray are among the many community service leaders who are keeping Obama’s spirit alive in their communities (Penn). Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that our destiny is tied up with the destiny and freedom of our brothers and that we cannot walk alone. Likewise in his inaugural address, President Obama recognized that America is a nation of different believers and cultures, and when we stand together with the understandings of perseverance and tolerance towards each other, we can defeat any challenges in the pursuit of our happiness (Associated Press).
President Obama is evidence of how far we have come in fulfilling Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream. Nevertheless, it is not the end of the journey but only a great advancement. Since the election, people are more engaged in their communities because President Obama has given them the assurance that the change they want will come. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Obama stand for peace and hope for the future. Although President Obama has become a symbol of the changes since Martin Luther King, Jr.’s time, it is not the end of the dream. One man cannot fulfill it alone. The American people as a nation must keep the faith alive and believe that together we can make that dream become reality for all.
Works Cited
Edney, Hazel T., ed. “Martin Luther King III: “Dream Not Yet Fulfilled”” InsightNews.com 19 Jan. 2009. 12 Feb. 2009
http://insightnews.com/index.php?option=com_contentEtview=articleEtid=3941:martin-luther-king-iii-dream-not-yet-fulfilledEtcatid=10:newsEtItemid=6
Liu, Eric. “Martin Luther King, “I Have A Dream “”The Riverside Reader. 9th ed. Cengage Learning, 2007. 461-65.
Penn, Steve. “Obama’s call to action inspires community service projects. “The Kansas City Star [Kansas City] 30 Jan. 2009.
The Associated Press. “Text of President Barack Obama’s inaugural address. “Yahoo News. 20 Jan. 2009. 12 Feb. 2009 http://news. yahoo.com/s/ap/20090121/ap_on_go_pr_wh/inauguration_obama_text12>.
“A Dream Almost Fulfilled”
By
Leonard Osgood
Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream of equality, true equality, for his people. Now, some forty years after Dr. King’s dream struck the spark that ignited a people’s passion for freedom and equality, we have an African-American president: Barack Obama. Has his election fulfilled Dr. King’s ultimate dream of true equality for all? While it is most certainly a giant step in that direction, I must submit that it has not. I do not believe that there is true equality yet, and maybe never will be, at least not in our lifetimes.
The reason I believe this way is simple: as painful as it might be to admit, we are all still racist to some degree. I don’t mean the cruel, hate filled connotations that one usually associates with the word, such as Klan members in their white sheets, or Black Panthers rebelling against whitey (although unfortunately, remnants of these out-of-date philosophies still hang on), I mean the way we look at and refer to ourselves in the most fundamental manner. We tend to classify ourselves by and be proud of our heritage, whether we are Black, White, Asian, Native American or whatever, which is fine in and of itself, but we don’t see a man standing in front of us, we see a black man, a white man, and a red man. Even though we are well on our way to judging a man not by the color of his skin, but by his accomplishments and his character, we still see the skin. We are still in a stage where we remind ourselves that it is the first African-American coach to win the Super Bowl; the first African-American man to lead the Republican Party; the first African-American President of the United States. We still rely on affirmative action programs to project the image of equality for not only African-Americans, but for other minorities and women as well, even though the programs are not meritocratic in nature. We live in a politically correct, hyphenated society. We are still at a point where we put our ancestral heritage above our nationality, and the hyphens not only divide the terms with which we describe ourselves, they also divide us as Americans. In the war for racial equality, we still live in a new, nervous cease fire.
I recently read an essay by a man named Eric Liu titled “A Chinaman’s Chance.” In it he said, “Growing up, when other kids would ask whether I was Chinese or Korean or Japanese, I would reply, a little petulantly, ‘American.’” That one sentence sums up the attitude I’m talking about. We are one people and one nation and should learn better to behave as such. Am I proud to be an English–Irish-German-Native American-American? Of course! But I am even prouder to be just a plain old unhyphenated American. I think Dr. King would have liked it that way.
“The Dream Fulfilled?”
By
Ida S. Bahri
While on You-Tube, I searched the phrase, “I have a dream” for my piece. The words resonated comfortably in my ears because I’ve heard them so many times before. It wasn’t until I finally tabbed over to watch the video clips of Dr. Kings speech that I finally caught a glimpse of his dream. I scrolled down to read the comments left by those who have watched the same speech I had. 5 out of 16 comments left were hate comments, another 5 had declared that Dr. King’s dream was synonymous with Barack Obama’s election and the last 6 speculated about Obama’s ties to Islam. Since then, some moderators have had to disable wall posts to avoid hate comments against blacks and Muslims. It is thus my conviction that Dr. Kings dream has not come true to its fullness.
I watched thousands of Black Muslim men in white traditional Islamic hats standing around Dr. King the day he gave that speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. An entire brigade of Black Muslim men stood so comfortably close to Dr. King that day, they could have been his body guards or his family, or friends. His dream was not just one day a black man could be president. Dr. King dreamed of a day an American could be president, regardless of his race or creed.
Barack Hussein Obama won the election because he was an American with a vision for this country who happened to be black and not a Muslim. This point is clearly evidenced in comments left by ordinary Americans on you tube footage of Dr. Kings. Speech, Obama’s own Campaign, and the mainstream media. The entire country was in upheaval while the world watched America decide the destiny of man who seemed questionably Muslim. Television commercials in Israel played continuously, reassuring the population that Obama was not a Muslim but in fact a devout Christian. Jesse Wright, Obama’s pastor ballooned and burst over the media into a fanatical-hardliner Christian frenzy. Barack Obama spoke more frequently about his Christian faith. America was hysterical over Obama’s ties to Islam and it wasn’t until Colon Powell said, “the correct answer is no, he’s not a Muslin, but what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?” “From every Hamlet, to every state, to every city. Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics.” Dr. King spoke these words to the Muslim Men in the white hats that enshrined him.
In the few days before and after the 44th Presidential Inauguration, Citizens of the free world fell to nostalgia over an old American dream. This dream was not romantic, or tragic, it wasn’t comedic nor heroic. It was the dream of a noble knight; it was the dream of a king. Martin Luther’s visionary protest against all forms of injustice and violence. On the eve of the inauguration, citizens of the free world had undoubtedly made history. Many of them retired Dr. Kings dream to the twilight and relegated him to honorary status between the ranks of the British royal family and Pluto as a planet. Dr. King’s Dream was dwarfed on the eve of the of the inauguration when the media prematurely raised the mission accomplished banner because a small battle was won in the war against injustice and inequality, but if recent history has taught Americans anything, it’s that mission accomplished does not mean an end to war, it’s just the beginning.
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