My title is from a poem by the poet, Langston Hughes, entitled, Dreams.

Hold fast to dreams 

for if dreams die

life is a broken-winged bird

that cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

for when dreams go

life is a barren field

frozen with snow.

It is among my favorite poems, one of the few I know by heart, because I feel its universal truth. Dreams don't have to be grandiose, merely something that gives us purpose, a reason to get up in the morning. Otherwise, why bother?

Published in 1923, I suspect Dr. King had read it and was a firm believer in its message for he was beyond a doubt a purveyor of dreams, dreams much bigger than an individual life.

If you have never done so, or even if you have, I would encourage a reading of the entire speech - or listening to it. The "I have a dream" passage is towards the end and while moving, it is only a small part of what he said that day in 1963. So much has changed since then, and yet many of the images he paints of the country he loved are still in evidence today. The history he describes is no less true. His counsel, "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred" should be held aloft and remembered as much as, "I have a dream."

Despite their fame, the words he said that day are not the first ones that come to my mind when someone asks me my favorite Martin Luther King,Jr. quote. In November, 1957, in a sermon he gave in Alabama, he said,

Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

My second favorite is from a sermon he gave in November, 1956: "Let no man pull you low enough to hate him." This comes from a longer paragraph that I had not read before I began to write this essay, but which I find to be perfect insofar as it reflects both history and our present as well as portending the future. A rather bleak one, sadly. He said:

As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. Always avoid violence. If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in your struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.

The tentacles of chaos are visible across the world for humans seem incapable of conspicuous acts of kindness as a route to peace.

Even so, I hold fast to dreams, and make every effort to be love and light to all whose paths I cross. I may not change the world, but I can emulate the change I want to see.

"No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." ~Martin Luther King Jr.

Water is one of the few forces of nature that is virtually unstoppable. If you have ever seen the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls, you understand the power of water. This seemingly gentle, unassuming element is capable of cutting through rock through sheer perseverance. The process may take centuries, but it is inevitable. The stream never stops; it just keeps flowing, cutting a deeper and deeper chasm.

Maybe that is the justice that Martin Luther King Jr. imagined – an unending justice, a justice that perseveres, cutting a gorge through any obstacle.

It might be disappointing to note that we have yet to achieve Reverend King’s dream, but we can still have hope. Justice will continue on as long as there are still people who are not satisfied with the way things are. The stream continues to flow.

Oh Freedom, Elysian, in these Fields

One hundred years later, Lord

One hundred years later, and more

in the great hymnals of the World

Now is the time, not when We've grown

Now is the time, not when We've moved on

Now is the time, not when We've settled for...

some Comfort in the backyard,

Now, and Then,

We cannot be satisfied, with pleasant Sounds

We cannot be satisfied, with screens of Distraction

We cannot be satisfied, with wine and water on Tap

No, We cannot be Satisfied

with I have a Dream nor with

Let Freedom Ring...

For, all these years, Glory be

It is Time, child,

To wake up.

01.24.2024

More than a Dream challenge @AJAY9979

The Man reported to work every day, punctually and dutifully. As the Worthless Check Constable for this fine state, it was his duty to recommend for prosecution those who would purposely write bad checks. Justice isn't bankrupt, after all.

Worthless Check Constable. Yes, that was thing.

On this day, January 15, a man named Martin knocked politely at his door. "Come in," offered the Worthless Check Constable, and Martin approached his desk, hat-in-hand. "What can I do for you, Mr. um — "

"King," Martin said. "Martin L. King, Jr. I was wondering if you could advise me."

"Sure."

"As I understand it, writing a bad check as a negotiable instrument that proves worthless is a Class A misdemeanor."

"That depends, Mr. King. Penal Code 476a PC — you're familiar with penal codes, aren't you Mr. King. Of course you are," he added with a tone of judgment. "476a makes it a crime to write or pass a bad check."

"You mean, knowing that there are insufficient funds in the account, right?"

"Yes," answered the Worthless Check Constable. "Normally it's just a misdemeanor, but doing it can be prosecuted as a felony if the value of the bad checks is more than, say, $950.00."

Martin held out a check.

"This is a blank check, Mr. Martin."

"Right. Is it worthless?"

"Depends. Is there anything to back this up?"

"I don't think so. I think whoever wrote this has defaulted on a promissory note. I have been given a bad check, and it has been returned as "insufficient funds."

"Happens all the time, Mr. King."

"So," Martin surmised, "we can certainly agree that I have been written a very bad check." He regarded the Man behind the desk. "And that the bank is bankrupt. And that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation?"

"Like I said, Junior..."

"Yes?"

"Happens all the time."

"But not to everybody."

"No, not to everybody. And the one who writes the checks is the one who determines who can cash them."

"You mean, successfully. Thank you very much. You've been very helpful."

"Yes, Mr. King. I usually am — but like you said, not to everybody. Have a blessed day."

Gradualism burns the wooden tracks that carry us to progress. Languidly chugging up a manufactured hill of disparity, the gears of forward motion are greased with the souls and bodies of the sacrificial Now.

As more fall under the weight of future expectation, their suffering and loss are heralded divine. To suffer is to be like Jesus: the expectation of living as a saint, of striving for the perfection of loss and suffering for the good of the many has been placed upon the shoulders of those least deserving of sorrow, those who already bear the brunt of suffering and degradation.

An inconvenience of time or petty cash is all it takes to tip Poverty from scraping the bottom to being crushed under the barrel that holds those scraps of insecurity, crushed because so many dip into the barrel furiously, clamoring over one another and crowding, yet their ladles come up empty. Now is all there is; for those with no future to speak of, to drink excessively, to eat badly, or to buy impulsively is the only true pleasure they can afford.

The immediacy and ease of procuring the unhealthy–because affordable consumables in the US don't even considered food in other countries–further impedes the impoverished person’s ability to contribute to the economy. And their taxable income seems to be the only determiner of society’s estimation of their intrinsic value.

Those whose incomes and housing and healthcare are secured are allowed to simply be. Their human value isn’t determined by their immediate productivity; leisure is allowed. Leisure has been earned, whether by birth, luck, work, or a combination of the three.

Their value being established by the tax dollars they unwillingly contribute, they are free to overindulge without excessive consequence. Paid sick leave can be used for hangovers; gap coverage and car rental coverage can be used for irresponsible driving and endangerment of others; retirement funds and house equity can be used for overspending and financial irresponsibility. And all this is aboveboard, protected, acknowledged as appropriate citizenship. And nothing more is required; no accusations are made against their humanity.

The most precise weapon of oppression is abject poverty. Poverty looks different now than it did decades ago. Poverty has a flatscreen TV and a cell phone. Poverty has internet access, soap, and a used car. But, Poverty has little else. And everything, for Poverty, is the urgent now.