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Correction: Due to a reporter's error, a Morning Coffee blog post published Friday, Aug. 29, 2008, entitled, "Without words, Obama speech realizes MLK's dream" incorrectly quoted Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. The correct quote is as follows: "This election has never been about me. It’s been about you." We regret the error. About halfway through Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s speech accepting the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party, I wondered whether he would ever get around to mentioning that old Montgomery preacher.
The one who was beaten. The one who was jailed. The one whose wife and children were terrorized to set the stage for both equality and the metaphorical platform on which Obama stood Thursday night.
The one who dreamt that dream some 45 years ago to the day that Obama officially became the first black man to accept a major political party’s nomination to lead a Western democracy. "For me, there were not many goosebump moments in this prose ..."In essence, and probably for the first time, I was wondering, “Where was the poetry, Barack?”
For me, there were not many goosebump moments in this prose, which highlighted some of the clearest policy goals and differences between the Democrats and the Republicans thus far in a major address by Obama.
In fact, much of the speech was a rebottling of Obama’s campaign stump stock, including a couple of references recycled from his awe-inspiring 2004 keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. More than the obscure reference at the close of the address, the speech, I had hoped, would have drawn on more of the parallels between this historic moment and Thursday’s 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
His dream that the next generation of black youth would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. His dream that this nation would one day rise up and fulfill its credo that, “All men are created equal.” His dream that former slaves and former slave owners would one day sit down at the table of brotherhood.
His dream, then, juxtaposed with the reality of Obama’s nomination and his fulfillment thereof.
Then it hit me. Or rather, Obama hit me and it. “This election has never been about me,” Obama said. “It’s been about you.”
“You,” being the American people. The autoworker. The farmer. The teacher. The police officer and firefighter. The single mother. And the injured war vet.
"King’s dream is alive – though unfulfilled. We’re getting there ..."For all the histrionics of this day, it was not an arrogant man but a humble declaration that shone Thursday night: that there is something greater at stake here than the first black man becoming the Democrats’ presidential nominee or, perhaps, leader of the free world.
At stake is the future, not milestones only colored and made relevant by the shades of our ugly past.
And the future was on stage Thursday night. As the fireworks boomed and the streamers fell, Obama’s 10-year-old daughter, Malia, stood beside a granddaughter of Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden. Smiling, the two batted away the star-shaped confetti winnowing onto the platform.
That image of a black girl and a white girl playing together was the heart of King’s dream. That image did more than any words Obama could have expounded.
King’s dream is alive – though unfulfilled. We’re getting there together as a nation – regardless of whether or not Obama wins this fall.
But Obama, to his credit, has brought America closer to that more perfect union.
It is now up to America to bring us the rest of the way.
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Dwayne Robinson is TheSequitur.com's executive editor and a law student at the University of Florida.
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