This week, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow the Western World now stands, was elected President of the United States. This momentous occasion has come forty-years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and one hundred and forty years after the abolition of slavery.
But one hundred and forty years on, this is not the end of the quest for equality. One hundred and forty years on, a black man can achieve, and still have his achievements judged by the colour of his skin. One hundred and forty years on, a man’s ethnicity is still considered first and his character second. One hundred and forty years on the Negro is still considered the Other, in spite of the power he is allowed. Today, the vision of Martin Luther King Jr. is only partly realised.
Barack Obama’s election to the throne of the Free World is significant. He is a standard-bearer in the continuing march towards equality, from which there is no turning back. At this historic time, British commentators have asked, “Should we appoint a black Prime Minister?” This question sweeps away a Civil Rights movement one hundred and forty years in the making.
We cannot be satisfied with the presumption that to embrace freedom you must have experienced injustice through the eyes of a black man. We cannot be satisfied that the white man is perceived to be incapable of distributing justice because his forefathers were not slaves.
We cannot be satisfied with banal complaints that the election of this black man shows that equality between races has surpassed equality between genders. We cannot be satisfied that Obama’s opponent in the Presidential race was considered in some quarters to have been an example against ageism. Each candidate regardless of gender, age and race was, first and foremost, a politician.
In his most famous of speeches, Martin Luther King Jr. said: “They (the white race) have come to realise that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We (the black race) cannot walk alone.”
Well I have a dream that one day the concept of “They” and “We” can be made obsolete: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men (and women) are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day a man can be elected to lead his country, and the nation can simply say: “We made the right choice.”
I have a dream that one day the colour of a person’s skin, their age and their gender can neither hinder nor benefit that individual in their ambitions.
I have a dream that our children will one day live in a world where they will not be judged on the bracket they fit in to, but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, every man, every woman and every child will enjoy the freedom of speech, thought and expression that is the foundation of Civil Liberty; that one day, two people of different backgrounds will be able to disagree in good conscience, without fear of being branded “Racist,” “Ageist,” or “Sexist.”
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day Equal Opportunities will cease to be a buzz word for statisticians and politicians and will finally mean what it says, that all individuals are given opportunities equally.
This is the dream that Barack Obama is charged with bringing to reality, though it may stretch beyond the reach of his lifetime. Within the dream, the Free World must be able to think, act and exist as one. Within the dream we will one day be able to work together, live together and love together without debating, or even being aware of, the differences of our breeding.
And if America is to lead the Free World in the pursuit of this dream, Barack Obama must be free to lead not as “The First Black President” but simply as the President of the United States. Freedom must be extended to everyone, even the man at the pinnacle of the Free World.
Freedom must be extended from politics to religion.
Freedom must be extended to the abandonment of Religious War.
But not only that, freedom must be extended over and above the diversities of Religious Truth.
Freedom must be extended from the West to the East, with the conviction that the use religion as an opiate has become disastrously flawed.
Freedom must be extended across the boundaries of the Free World, using the truths which are self-evident in nature and can be proven by science.
And when this happens, and every individual in every town of every country can look upon each other as one and the same, finally the dream will come true. Concepts of race and religion will become redundant. Diversity will spread in waves across the gene-pool of the Free World, and we will find that, eventually, we are all the same.
And one day, even if it takes another one hundred and forty years, our collective intelligence will allow us to finally replace the determination of long-held doctrines with the acceptance of progressive new ideas. Finally, we will live and worship under the same roof as one victorious family, spared from the divisive word “Equality.”
Then, in admiration of one another, we can truly say: “We are free at last!”
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