Fulfillment of a Dream

It is, of course, ironic that Martin Luther King day and the inauguration of our 44th President are occurring on consecutive days. The man who stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August of 1963 and said, “Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood,” must surely have envisioned the historical event that is taking place tomorrow.

Whether or not you supported his presidency, you cannot ignore the magnitude of what is about to happen, a man of black heritage taking the oath, for the highest office of our land. Real progress, however, will be made when the young children of today, look on the election of an individual of any race, man or woman, as nothing out of the ordinary. We will have arrived, as a nation, at the door of our mutually promised heritage when that day occurs. The man who said, “We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote,” must be pleased with tomorrow’s events. Today we honor a man who had a dream. Tomorrow we see a portion of that dream fulfilled. 

Note: If you read this post at my original Desktop Genealogist Blog on the News-Messenger website, you will notice that the second to the last paragraph was not included there. That is because the website required me to change the word "Negro" to the word "Black." Not wanting to change the historic speech of Dr. King, I elected to omit the offending paragraph.

© 19 January 2009, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder