Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

I, too, have a dream. Though I could never in a million tries express it so eloquently as Dr. King did.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The words above do not differentiate between black and white, catholic and jew, or any other groups. It addresses us all.

We the People. This, by itself, says everything that America should, and in our deepest dreams does, stand for. Somehow, or other, we've allowed this to be tarnished, and stained. Instead of just saying it's damaged and needs fixing, we cast blame. We search and we search for a scapegoat...and being human, we find 'em.

It's the liberal. It's the conservative. It's the catholic. It's the jew. It's the illegal immigrant. It's the homosexual who wants to be married to his, or her soulmate. It's a young girl child who is a boy in everyway that matters save they have a girls body.

Do you see where this is going?

It's none of those things. It's We the People. We form this Union, be the union America, or the Union is something rather larger...like the world.

That dream, which the Rev. King spoke of so eloquently, applies not just to #blacklivesmatter, or to #alllivesmatter. It applies to people we'll never meet...the bushman in the Kalahari desert who doesn't know a hashtag from a semi-colon. A poor itinerant farmer in a Vietnamese ricepaddy matters as much as the richest CEO of the largest corporation in the world.

#toyourheartscontent won't change a damned thing until you, and I realize that the problems of our world, be it racial, political, even spiritual, can only be solved by us working together. #'s are meaningless.

The marchers firehosed in Selma didn't need a hashtag to know what was right. The people in Manila didn't need a hashtag to overthrow Marcos. Social change comes via courage. Courage to stand up and say "I have a dream", and be willing to die to make it come true. Die you may, but courage never goes unnoticed.

Those who would, for whatever reason, stop us can jail us, hurt us, even kill us; but for peace, and equality to triumph, we can never respond with malice in response.

Abraham Lincoln said it best:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

There are many a wound that needs binding, that takes time and patience...it'll take courage to keep on that path. To care for those that called us enemy, and still do...and to care for their children.

Until that glorious day Martin Luther King spoke of comes, and it will only come if we have the courage and fortitude to bring it to fruition.

Without courage, those words "Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last." will mean nothing.

It was a tough path those brave men and women trod back in the early sixties. Arrested. Beaten. Murdered. Yet change came to the south. The work isn't done yet. The schisms still divide us...relegating the deaths of these brave men and women to a straw death, utterly without meaning. We have a chance to, if not finish, to further their works. Bring people who should be brothers/sisters together.

Then maybe, just maybe, those words will mean something.

Or, we can continue to find others to blame...

Ultimately, it's all up to you.

a reply to: seagull

I used to believe in all of this message. Then something happened. We The People have changed. The people that MLK spoke to and of are memories of who we were.

Katrina woke me up to the vulgarities of who we truly are. People literally died of thirst on rooftops, of starvation in the Superdome, on the street while Fox News stood next to the man's corpse, Shephard Smith commenting about bodies being left on streets to rot. This time has been forever etched into my memory.

All of this in OUR country! We turned against each other in horrific ways, and we haven't looked back. We are better than this!

I am for a national reset. Let's shake hands and start again.

a reply to: seagull

Unfortunately, this has been going on since the beginning of human kind on this planet. The only way for there to be a real difference and create that change is for the narrative to be something else altogether.

Ideally, every human would wake up tomorrow and remember that they are souls with a body, not bodies with souls.

When we are born we are naked and without blemish, it is not until the human condition created by the narrative of culture and environment changed how the story plays out for each human condition.

We need to change the narrative, forget the Constitution, when it was written all humans were not equal then in the words that were deemed important.

There is only one way for people in this human condition to start treating each other as equals immediately and it happens every time when this occurs, because there is no discrimination when a disaster strikes.

Mother Nature does not care what color, race, creed, religion, age or monetary status you have.

Nice effort on the thread and if only were that simple.

It's hard for people to come together as long as some continue to negatively highlight differences in the name of "equality".

we have nothing to unite the country so we bicker amongst ourselves and hope for the best.
while others prey on our fears and expose our underbellies.
there is nothing uniting us..nothing.

a reply to: seagull

I have a dream.

Which is, screw the American dream and the care free Aussie lifestyle. Well I'm at it, screw any other so called 'patriotic' delusional ideology. Then screw all the different organized forms of religion & government. Also, why not screw all the different concepts of what society considers normal and what society considers not normal?

Race, class, sexuality, choice of drug, religion, spiritually (or lack of any) and political beliefs, should all come second to the concept that we're all in this together, living under the same sky, without a definitive clue of what the purpose truly is.

Fact is, we all witness the same sun that rises every morning, we all observe the same moon. Once we all accept the reality of what is, then life can finally become perfect for everyone born to this earth of ours.

Or maybe I'm just a dreamer.... I can't be the only one though.

I can agree with all people being treated equally under the law, but I don't think it is reasonable to think we are all going to get along...ever. Frankly, there are people I just don't like and want nothing to do with. I am sure I am that person for many others. The point is we can't be expected to like everyone or just 'get along'. Life doesn't work that way and never will.

a reply to: seagull

I have a dream yes I also have a dream, but that dream is just that a dream, We the human species can never come to terms as we stand in our spiritual and evolutionary ladder that we are all equal, we can blame society, religion, politics and whatever.

The reality is that as a species we only use 10% or our brain, in that 10% the ego take most of it. Only a few people in this world can even come close to have a mind in which the ego no longer is priority, but these few people are found spending their lives helping their fellow human beings and do not waste time been in the front lines with politics or mundane life.

So until our brain develop enough to increase its usage we have no more room to think about anybody else but our own personal selves.

Even if we have the capabilities to understand what is right or wrong, our ego bypass all that.

a reply to: marg6043

Yeah, but isn't it a dream worth working for?

The problems aren't ever going to solve themselves, folks. Haven't run into one yet.

I can't help but wonder what the folks left from the Selma marches think of the events of this point in time...

Or what Dr. King would have thought.

It's really easy to find reasons not to...less easy to be willing to dig in and try to effect a positive change.

a reply to: marg6043

While I do agree with your overall message, the people only use 10% of their brain is a well repeated myth - the vast majority of our brain is active at all times. Our brains are 8% of our body weight, but uses 20% of caloric intake. Our brains are like the rest of our body - if you don't use it, you lose it, and sadly, in this day and age, most people do not choose to use it.

a reply to: Metallicus

I completely disagree with basically everything you post dude. But, I don't hate ya at all and would happily have a beer with you anytime and happily laugh off anything we disagreed about... just so long as we treated each other with an appropriate degree of respect.

Life doesn't have to be so complicated, if we would all just relax a little...... then live and let live.

a reply to: Metallicus

That's where the live and let live comes into play.

Or... If you prefer...

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you... Or words to that effect.

a reply to: seagull

If you go back into history and take the time to analyze how certain historical moments are unforgettable,, due to their impact on humanity, is because for once in a moment people took the time to come together for a common goal.

Governments hate that, those in power can not have populations together in common goals because it is danger to their power over the people.

If you are observant of certain human right issues going on right now, you will see that is a force behind the pushing of those issues and is man made, but not to bring unity but to increase divisions.

We humans have problems with manipulation, we are easily manipulated by those that call themselves our leaders.

Is a growing division in this nation like I say and is all man made, because a society that is divided can not cause problems for those that are in power, those that raise to call for unification for common goals has always been persecuted and killed, all we have is a history tells their stories.

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

We humans are pretty much a young species, we are still developing, but in this time and age we are still infants when it comes on how to use our capabilities.

a reply to: seagull

Sometimes you just have to admit that the marriage is over and neither party can continue to live the lie, Brother. It sucks, but (on an startlingly increasing frequency of days) I'm starting to feel that way about all the different sides in the USA. Maybe a dissolution of the marriage that is the USA is past due. Break the nation into pieces, categorize every interested party, and divide her up. Folks can move to whichever state closest meets their needs and move out of whichever state most burns their biscuits. Let's face it, America has become too diverse and too internally broken to survive in its current state.

I'll stay where I am, though.

originally posted by: autopat51
we have nothing to unite the country so we bicker amongst ourselves and hope for the best.
while others prey on our fears and expose our underbellies.
there is nothing uniting us..nothing.

TPTB would have us all believe that if they could.

One strategy that the 'powers that wanna be' use is to divide and rule, i.e. get their enemies to fight and destroy each other.

Everything I've seen tells me that strategy is working very well.

The truth is we are all connected.

"Man thinks they are each alone in this world. It is not true. You are all connected. One act can one day affect all." ~ Story

Would-be global rulers cannot physically control six and a half billion humans. Therefore, they must use secrecy and deceit. Keep the human herd ignorant and fighting with each other. Divide and conquer – it’s the oldest tactic in the book. And it’s relatively easy if you control the major academic institutions, the political parties and the major mass media (a mere five multinational corporations with interlocking directorships today control everything we see and hear.) ~ Jim Marrs

www.examiner.com...

a reply to: seagull

"Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last. Now I have a head wound. Thanks a lot."

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Burd...

Sometimes I just have to agree with you... ...and in my darker moments, I think exactly like that. Maybe it would be better to blow it all up and start over from scratch...

But that dream just won't die. Batter it about though we will.

'cause I see it in microcosm everyday. People of all sorts and kinds living and laughing together. I lived it for a number of years in Alaska's, of all places, fishing grounds. Of course, there were always those who had issues with others for stupid reasons like religion, orientation...etc... But they usually got short shrift.

I once had someone knock on my door, inviting me to a blanket party for our resident Muslim... This was just after the attempted WTC bombing... I asked him what time. At the appointed time, I was at that door waiting for the folks to show up... They did, and I told them quite simply they'd have to go through me first. The wonderful thing about this was, I wasn't alone, I was joined by two really large Mormon Samoans, a couple of Catholic white Americans, and a Hispanic Muslim.

I know there are people out there who see it, want it, just as strongly, or more as I.

So, 'til my dying day, or it actually happens, I'll continue to dream it, and work, as I can, to make it happen. ...and hope/pray that I can, in my own little way, help it happen.

a reply to: Starbuck799

Care to elucidate on that a trifle?

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: Starbuck799

Care to elucidate on that a trifle?

It just means that a guy who really had some power to make real change was gunned down in the end. Very sad really. And look at us now.