Dreamer

Was it really 50 years ago today? Since then, that remarkable piece of oratory, the Martin Luther King, “I Have a Dream” speech has stood as the hallmark for all public speakers on any subject.

But we rarely hear the speech in its 16-minute entirety. Most of us know it from the last 2 1/2 pages and they will forever be historic for how they motivated people to make dramatic changes — not just in the deep south, but everywhere.

Do any of you actually remember seeing separate drinking fountains for whites only — separate bathrooms for whites only — theater balconies and schools and the back seats of buses exclusively for blacks. Our kids and grandkids can’t even conceive that this country ever had those scars much less unpunished lynchings and other unspeakable abuses.

But many of you do remember those things going on in your lifetime. And while not all of his dreams have come true, there are more little black and white children holding hands because we all are, more than ever before… “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”

I’m Pat McMahon.

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