I have, for much of my life, known the name Martin Luther King Jr. I got to know much more when my eldest children studied the American Civil Rights movement for their History 'A' levels. There is not much I can say that hasn't already been said about the injustices that black Americans endured. Unbelievable really, a country that welcomed people from all corners of the world, that fought for freedom for the downtrodden across the planet could allow, within its own borders, segregation, injustice, apartheid.
The BBC has broadcast several programs this week, the 50th anniversary of The March on Washington. Still, so many years later the words are just as powerful, heartfelt, emotive. People power is astonishing, the film footage of ordinary folk, dressed in their Sunday best getting up in the early hours, travelling for many miles to make a difference, to be there, to witness change. They stood in peace, side by side, old, young, black, white, and listened to history being made, their country would change, their lives forever different. And now America has it's first African American president, his path to the White House started that very day, as the historian Professor Clayborne Carson said when we dare to dream, to take action "things that were not possible become possible".
There is much in this world that needs changing, still many injustices, children starving, dying of curable diseases, living in slums, having no education. Where are their rights? Who is marching for them? We live on a very small planet of which we are all citizens, we should believe that the 'not possible becomes possible' for all not just those of us who can march, who can vote and speak out. Where is their dream?
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
― Mother Teresa
