A Meager Tribute

So as to not be cliche, I have waited until the day after the holiday to pay tribute to Dr. King. I have had a variety of responses to this man in my 35 years. I clearly remember the first time I heard of him. We were shown a film strip on his life in 2nd grade (remember film strips?). Not only was this my first exposure to Dr. King, but it was my first exposure to segregation. I remember looking around at some of my African-American classmates (I was fortunate to have lived in an ethnically diverse neighborhood) and being shocked that not too long before this, we would have lived dramatically separate lives. Over time, my youthful romantic optimism faded. I came to feel that the fame of Dr. King was tokenism (I struggle even to type this now). I felt inundated with clips of him uttering about his dream, yet I failed to grasp the significance of it. I have now come to view him as one the great heroes of American history. I believe that the greatness of this man extends far beyond his role in the eradication of segregation. To begin with, Dr. King recognized that the greatness of the Untied States has really nothing to do with the United States in a vacuum. It rests in the fact that people who founded the nation, as well as those who have maintained it, recognized truths that were much greater than any one nation or state. The country only works as long as it seeks to perpetuate the role of these truths within the nation. Dr. King wasn't just acting to save the black man, he was acting to save the nation. If segregation had been allowed to continue, it could only have led to the death of the nation in one form or another. Something that helped me realize all of this was taking the time to read the entirety of his speech from the March on Washington. As I mentioned, I had heard the end very often, and I never found much meaning in it. I believe that the significance of Dr. King is found elsewhere in the speech. The following is a portion of that. It reflects optimism rather than cynicism, love of country rather than bitterness towards it,and a plan for improvement rather than just a complaint. Above all it shattered the assumptions that many white Americans had made concerning African-Americans, and it helped America be more American than it ever had been before. I only hope that I might be able to implement this attitude in my own role as a citizen, and perhaps pass it on to my students as well.

•In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children

• -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream”