I have a dream.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a
broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Langston
Hughes
Every year since coming back to
Duluth in 2005, I have walked in the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day march,
unless I have been out of town. It isn’t
always easy. It is January in Duluth,
after all. I was thinking this year
might be mild as January was pretty mild this year, until the week of January
18. January cold returned, though it was
not as brutally cold this year as some. However,
though it is cold, we don’t have to walk as high-pressure fire hoses are being
sprayed at us, or dogs barking and biting at us. There are no jeering crowds shouting racial epithets,
only a number of people giving thumbs up or cheering from office building
windows or the skywalk.
One of the serendipitous delights
of this year’s march was that I had the privilege of walking while sharing a
banner with Sha’rya. I had not met Sha’rya
before. She was at the march with her
aunt and sister.
As I walked with Sha’rya and our
banner, which read “Do To Us What You Will, We Will Still Love You,” I was
thinking about the United States and race.
In my lifetime, progress has been made.
Laws segregating blacks and whites have fallen. Banking practices which segregated neighborhoods
have been changed. Racial epithets,
though they have not disappeared, are frequently held in disdain. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday is a
national holiday, and his “I Have a Dream” speech is considered one of the landmark
oratories in American history.
Progress has been made, but
problems persist, and at times we digress rather than progress. Voting rights which people struggled for are
being eroded in some places. Poverty
remains persistently high among people of color. Incarceration rates for African-Americans are
significantly higher than among other populations. The relationship between law enforcement and people
of color is often strained and in need of repair. King’s dream is held up as a wonderful
ideal. His accompanying social critique,
including his analysis of the damage done by our failures to live up to the
dream, is not often grappled with.
Let America be the
dream the dreamers dreamed –
Let it be that great
strong land of love
Where never kings
connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be
crushed by one above.
(It never was America
to me.)
Langston
Hughes
There is
work to do, so we continue to march. I
want the world to be a different place for Sha’rya as she grows. I want it to be a better place, a safe place,
a place where she can flourish, a place with no artificial barriers are put in
her way because of her heritage. I think
of the words of a spiritual: Ain’t gonna
let nobody turn me around, turn me around, turn me around. Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around. Keep on walkin’, keep on talkin’ gonna build
a brand new world.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
