February 13, 2004
Dr. King’s Dream is Our Dream
In the course of February, Black History Month, there are countless tributes to the historical role of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. One measure of Dr. King’s greatness is that he was a man of so many facets and outstanding qualities. If I were to ask a roomful of Iowans their favorite thing about Dr. King, I am sure I would get a dozen different answers: his philosophy of nonviolence, his courage, his oratory, his deep faith, his leadership ability, his capacity to inspire, and on and on.I am no exception. I also have my favorite thing about Dr. King. What most impressed me was his unique ability to articulate a vision that united people of widely different walks of life. He brought us together on common ground that was invariably the high ground of America’s noblest ideals and principles.
Dr. King’s approach stands in stark contrast to today’s style of political dialogue. Ours is an era of slash-and-burn politics that seems to get uglier and uglier. We hear it on talk radio. We hear it on what I call the political “shout shows” on cable TV. And, of course, we hear it in harsh attack ads during political campaigns.
Dr. King had an entirely different approach to political persuasion. He did not demonize his opponents. He did not hate his adversaries. Instead, he summoned all of us to the best within us. He stressed what unites us and ennobles us as Americans and as human beings.
Consider these immortal words from Dr. King’s speech at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal’…. I have a dream that my four 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.”
Who could say no to that? Of course, in Dr. King’s day, there were still many people who did say no. But when he set forth such a powerful vision of equality and national unity, those naysayers must have known that their days were numbered.
Too often in our great American society, we focus on the relatively small things that divide us instead of the big things that unite us. Dr. King saw this as a failure of vision. As he put it: “We see men as Jews or Gentiles, Catholics or Protestants, Chinese or Americans, Negroes or whites. We fail to see them as fellow human being made from the same basic stuff as we, molded in the same divine image.”
Yes, Dr. King struggled specifically for the civil rights of African-Americans. But he emphasized that this was truly a universal struggle, a struggle that every American has a stake in winning. He changed hearts and minds all across our country.
America is a great nation because we are a good nation. At critical times in our history, visionary men and women have stepped forward to summon us to the better angels of our nature. Dr. King earned a special place in black history – and in American and world history – as one of the greatest of those visionaries.