I may be the first to admit that I haven't listen to the whole thing from first to last, but I have heard and read snippets of it, giving me the tenor of the entire speech. Please forgive me if I have offended anyone in the fact that I have NOT listened to its entirety. The four words resonate with so many people today and I believe that too many times we have twisted the intent to make it read that we each have a right to have our dream realized. Is that really what his speech conveyed?
My opinion is that Martin Luther King, Jr. understood that we had a right to pursue out dreams no matter out race, gender or nationality. It did NOT mean that one race was "better" or that one gender was "more important." It certainly didn't mean that if your religion prompted you to pursue harm to another religion, that it was okay.
Here's my "issue" with that speech. Why did it take a MAN all this time to get others to realize what Jesus Himself was teaching two thousand years ago? He was the one, through His death, Who brought down all walls of division and leveled the playing field. But Jesus's dream was that all would follow HIM.
And allow me to take this whole idea a little further. In the Constitution, it says we have the RIGHT to PURSUE happiness. It does NOT say we have a right TO happiness. We may pursue it all of our lives and never achieve it, but we are never guaranteed that. Too many Americans believe that just because you live in the USA, you have the RIGHT to any benefits you like. This is so not right!
I am an American citizen. I claim that right and that I DO have certain rights endowed to me by my Creator. I have the right to wake up every morning with a fresh start. I have a right to worship Him anytime and anywhere I like. I have a right to give Him praise. And by virtue of my living where I do, under the Constitution, I have a right to speak about God. I have a right to have a gun in order to protect myself and my family. I have a right to go to church with a group of people and worship God. And I have a right to PURSUE what makes me happy.
I am grateful that I live where I do - for now. But even if my country decides to go back on everything its founding fathers set up, I STILL have rights given to me by my Creator. I have a dream too. I have a dream that my country, the country in which Martin Luther King, Jr. was born and raised, will continue to stand for the very principles that our founding fathers set forth and that my Creator intended for each person. And I will continue to have this dream for as long as I draw breath.
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