MLK's Dream: We still have a long way to go.

One of the great things about being the board of education president in my town is that it gives me the opportunity to address the public and more importantly our children. We hold a Martin Luther King Celebration every year and it was a great honor to be allowed to speak at that celebration. Here is my speech from 01/14/2012. George Cook AAreports.com


I would like to welcome everyone and thank you for coming out today.

We are here today to honor a great man. A great American hero.

Someone we revere and honor so much that he is one of only four men to have a monument on the National Mall.

To be honest with you if Dr King were still alive I don’t know how happy he would be with a monument and a day in his honor.

I think he would want to be honored in a much different way.

I think that he would happy to be honored by us all living together as Americans. No black, no white, no yellow, no red, or no brown just people who are truly judged by content of their character.

Many forget when talking about Dr King that although he wanted and fought for equal rights for African Americans he wanted equal rights for all not special rights for a few.

I don’t know how happy he would be today that people in the 21st Century can still be separated by color, by religion, or by sexual orientation.

Now make no mistake we have come a long way but all of us have a long way to go to make Dr. Kings dream a reality.

Fortunately with every generation our children shed some of our predjuces and ignorance and as I look at the children here I see that we are even closer to Dr Kings dream. I believe our children have a better grasp on unity and racial harmony than we adults do and that we adults can learn a lot from them.

So if we truly want to honor Dr. King lets truly try to live in his spirit and find what unites us instead of divides us.

Because until we do that Dr Kings Dream will remain just that, a dream.

Thank you.

George Cook AAreports.com. Author of the Kindle book Let's Talk Honestly: One Black Man's Thoughts $1.50