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Why Continue to Celebrate the ‘Dream’?

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By Dr. William Oliver Hedgepeth
Program Director, Government Contracts and Acquisition at American Public University

So much time has passed since Martin Luther King, Jr. walked this earth. I am a scholar of several subjects, but not of this legend. But, those who are not scholars are the very ones who should speak up on this special time. How poetic that his day is celebrated in the winter with frozen winds to help remind us of frozen minds.

But winter is a season in every man’s life and lifetime. Spring is near, just out of reach, but coming. So, I see this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a whisper of hope, a shout of joy in the frigid air of our discontent juxtaposed to what we see on the nightly news. Visit any major city and the news and the story of violence and racial disharmony is the same.

I hoped eight years ago that the past of the 1960s was over and part of history for students to read about and ask those who lived during that time in the South if it was for real. I spoke with civil rights leaders and hoped that, with our new President of the United States, perhaps a new Camelot was upon us. Their response, with a bit of sadness, was that the new president was not going to be the last chapter in the story.

This new year finds racial anger as a raw, constantly oozing wound. I am saddened by our need to continue to push for understanding what the word diversity means to our high school students, to our employees, and to strangers in line to buy a sandwich.

But, the diversity of neighbor and friendship is as real as an endless spring. I am heartened by the flags that started flying on homes this last year amid such rancid racial strife. My own flags, two of them, fly all the time, with lights on them at night. They are the American flag, stars and stripes forever. They are flags of solidarity to my neighbors and to any stranger passing by. Flags of inclusion.

You don’t know my race. You can find it easy enough. But, that should not matter as we celebrate this special day.

Does race matter? Should it matter? The answer came from a high school student when I was guest teaching a special class in logistics at Chesterfield County’s Career and Technical Center. I gave the class a survey to analyze that included a collection of data that showed responses according to age, education, race, etc. This 17 year old asked me, “Why did they have to ask about race?” She went on to add that the color of someone’s skin does not matter when talking about any of this stuff. She was right. Color did not matter.

Having the benefit of age on my side I can see the progress made as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream unfolds across the generations. From the Greatest Generation to the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and young people, the dream was real.

Repeating the famous words of Dr. King, “I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

The new generation hears it as part of their studies of American history or any number of academic subjects. When I taught at the University of Alaska I would hear the dream speech on a video loop in the hallway of the College of Business and Public Policy. I remember hearing one young lady remark, “Not that dream speech again. I have heard it over and over.” Shaking her head side to side with her college girlfriends they laughed and went on gossiping about other more pressing things in life.

I was looking at them from the railing on the second floor as they disappeared down the hall. What would their parents say to such a statement? What would their grandparents say?

I never tire of what it stood for then and should now. But, I am a professor and enjoy the flow, power, and meaning of words woven together in a tapestry of hope and guidance. These girls may not know the power that has flowed around them, their homes, and their neighbors — a power that lifts us all to a better day, a better tomorrow. They don’t know that Earth, water, and blood grew the seeds of this all-encompassing tree of life, knowledge, and hope on which they climb, sit, and enjoy the safety of its protective arms.

God bless Martin Luther King, Jr. Your dream is our spring. Your dream is our hope. Look it up. Listen to it.

About the Author: Dr. Oliver Hedgepeth is the program director for Government Contracts and Acquisition at American Public University (APU). He is the former program director of Reverse Logistics Management and Transportation and Logistics Management. Prior to joining APU, Dr. Hedgepeth was a tenured associate professor of Logistics and chair of the Logistics Department at the University of Alaska Anchorage. His book, RFID Metrics, was published in 2007 by CRC Press and is in revision.

 

 

 

 

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