August 28:

1963: Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I have A Dream" speech.

1985: My mom was dying from terminal bone cancer. I had spent days and nights at the hospital trying to comfort her. On August 27, on a night I should have been with her, I went to San Francisco to do a drug deal. At 5 am, on August 28, I called the hospital to see how she was. She was dead. She had died at 3 am on August 28, 1985. It is a disgrace and a sorrow that will be with me forever.

My mom fought, in her own way, to give respect to all people. I remember once my friend and I had gone to her work with her to pick up her paycheck. While she was inside, my friend and I were watching an old  man dig through the refuge container outside her store (She was a grocery checker for Lucky Markets) and we were laughing. I think I was eleven. She came up behind me and grabbed me and slammed me against a wall, and slapped me across the face. She said, “that man is a human being and don't let me ever hear or see you disrespect any human being. Shame on you!”

I can remember that moment as if it were yesterday.

My mom had hopes and dreams that America would someday really be a nation of one. So, rather than acknowledge loosing her, I try to remember her for all the great things she believed in and the great mother she was to me. I celebrate her life each and every August 28. I, add, to the celebration, and to this date, which will live with me forever, to remember Dr. Martin Luther King's “I Have A Dream” speech, because in his words are the dreams of my mom too.

As with every August 28th, my morning begins with listening to Dr. King's speech. It's only 17 minutes long, but, its one powerful 17 minutes, and in his words I see and hear my mom, and the beliefs of my dad, my grandmother, and all who embraced creating a world that works for all.

President Obama presses the issue of "change." Change, and the world changes with us. If we don't make "change" happen, the world will change anyway. So, why not, as, a people, change for the better?

Stand up for change! My mom would have embraced this idea.

"It is time to pass the torch from one generation to another. (John F. Kennedy)," and this "change" is happening every day. Stand up for change! It is time to allow our nation's beacon of hope to shine again. Stand up for change! It is time to completely unshackle the bonds of centuries-past. Stand up for change! It is time to set a new course for our nation, one in harmony with the planet. Stand up for change! It is time to step up and onto the frontier of the 21st Century, where the sky no longer is the measurement of how far, as, a people we can go. Stand up for change! Limitations are a mind-set. The 21st Century is limitless. There is much work to be done. We can make the 21st Century a century of unlimited opportunities.

I read a piece about a couple who had moved to the inner-city. They had come from rural America. Their seven year old daughter was attending her first day of school. When their little girl came home she was excited to tell her mom about a new friend she had met. Her mom ask her daughter, “what color is your new friend? The little girl looked at her mom and said, “I never noticed.”

It's time to create an America rooted in the 21st Century.

It's time to create a world that works for ALL...

Creating A World That Works For All
http://www.commonway.org