I Too Have A Dream

Written on Thanksgiving Day 2007 reflecting on a night in Nov. 2005

Two years ago. . I stood on a cool November night, on the steps of the Lincoln memorial in the very spot that Dr. King delivered those fateful words and I wept

I cried for the thousands, millions even who went before me and lived in this country as second class citizens.

I wept for the oppression that was exercised by my own slaveholder forefathers.

I wept to honor the bravery of men and woman who dared stand up against the lynch mobs and their nooses.

I wept for my Latin brothers and sisters who are experiencing the Jim Crow of today.

I wept for Matthew Sheppard who did nothing of import to have been pinned to a fence and beaten and left for dead.

And lastly I wept for myself who has stood amongst all kinds of men, served in my country’s armed forces, served my God and church as a missionary, earned degrees from the most revered of our educational halls, consulted in the halls of congress, and stood in the very oval office of the President of the United States, and who despite that, is still a second class citizen. Unable to be treated equally by the law, unable to marry the man I love, pushed to the back of society’s bus. . .

Standing on that hallowed ground, I looked out on the night sky and the lights along the National Mall, blurred by the quite emotional tears rolling down my face I looked out with hope. . .In an instant my resolve shifted - I felt less the victim and more the soldier. My boyfriend stood at Lincoln’s feet some distance behind me, Alone in that spot, on the stairs of the memorial I heard the voice. “You’re day will come. But, you too must stand, act, and say alowed: “I too have a dream”. . .”

J. Knight Ord III