Martin Luther King Jr. (I Have a Dream)

I love reading Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech I Have a Dream! It does the best job of reminding me that change is constant. In the beginning of his speech he speaks of Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation; which brought about the release of all black slaves. Dr. King further eludes that change is constant when he says,"But one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination." By saying this Dr. King expresses vividly that the Negro is free of slavery, but not "free" of a different bondage. A bondage that keeps them socially beneath white people. I further love how he does all of this while setting an example; urging other Negro to "...forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.We must not allow of creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force." I relate to this theme of change and doing so peaceably with my constant fight with weight issues. I know it doesn't sound quite as important as when compared to the social bondage Dr. King speaks of. However, I assure you it is. When you are not as thin as everyone else you are often made fun of; that is to be sure. Apart from the numbing effects of the teasing of others; you are the one who fully cripples yourself. Now I am not speaking of a physical paralysis, rather an emotional. I myself have been my worst enemy. Telling myself that I couldn't go out for sports or become the lead in the school play; simply because I was fat and ugly. To be the lead of the play or the captain of the basketball team I had to be skinny/fit. So it was back in Dr. King's day, if you were a negro and not white you could not do anything important and were kept in your place. This is wrong! We must allow ourselves to reach our full potential; further more we must be there to help each other. In High School it was my family and friends who encouraged me to audition for musicals and plays. In our nations history--as mentioned by Dr. King-- it wasn't only black people who wanted their freedom, but a few white people recognized that blacks deserved there freedom too. Dr. King even goes as far as calling those white people in attendance brothers. I think that Dr. King sums everything up perfectly at the end when he states, "And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring,en we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" I know it is a long quote, but it deserves repeating. I felt within myself the truth that all of us can only truly be free if we are all free together. Dr. King doesn't just leave his dream at black people. He expands his dream to encompass the entire globe. He knows it is the only lasting way for all of us to be free. We need to grab hold upon his dream. It doesn't matter is we're fat, skinny, black, white, or somewhere caught in the middle. We deserve it to ourselves to help each other and support each other. Only in this way can we become free.