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Got MLK

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Got MLK

In thinking about what to write this upcoming MLK Day, I thought I’d repost what I wrote last year. I couldn’t say it any better. It started with a dream…

Burr!!! Happy MLK Day. (And Inauguration Day.)

I had a dream last night. Definitely not like the one Mr. King spoke of almost 50 years ago. 

I dreamt of myself as a little 6-year old boy unknowingly riding on a bus with an older version of myself. When little me went to tell the bus driver that I needed to pee, he told me to go back to my seat. An innocent bystander came over to help and without a thought, the bus driver opened the door, and while the bus was still moving, he pushed us both out! The remainder of the passengers gasped as little me and the innocent bystander rolled onto the concrete, blood everywhere. 

Suddenly, I was now not only observing the dream, but in the dream. I was now the older version of me in the bus. I stood up and yelled to protest his cruel act of violence; I immediately asked for everyone’s assistance. I got very little help and so I got off the bus but I was already too far away from the crime scene. In the end, there was no resolution, the dream got weird and I don’t remember the ending, ugh! 



This morning I woke up and decided to read MLK’s “I Have A Dream” speech; I read it word for word, as I had only done so once before when reading his autobiography. After all these years, the words are still powerful. They reminded me of all the inequality that still exists in our country, our world. The one phrase that caught my attention was “we cannot walk alone.” It sort of summed up everything. How often do we get consumed into our little lives, not realizing that we do not and cannot walk this earth alone? We, each and every one of us, are all connected, past, present, and future!
(Rather than post last years image, (Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness), the piece featured here is titled, “MLK”). In his speech, MLK quotes this ‘unalienable right.’ There’s that little me that just doesn’t understand how such a simple thing cannot be granted to us all. How does it all get so complicated? And in one simple answer, I think religion really fucks us up and keeps us from uniting as one world. 
(Obama- to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.)



John Lennon said it best:



“Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for 

And no religion too 

Imagine all the people living life in peace 



You, you may say 
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one

I hope some day you'll join us 

And the world will be as one"