During the hectic first day of classes, bells rang across the nation to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s march to Washington, D.C., where he thundered, “I have a dream” across the Reflecting Pool and into our country’s conscious.
The bells were a call to reflect on this nation’s past and present when it comes to issues of equality — a difficult task with our back-to-the-grind, first-day thoughts.
The ringing bells might have made little impact as we ran to class, met with friends we haven’t seen and contemplated a hopefully high grade-point average for the semester. However, the chimes should stand as a reminder of our personal responsibility to focus on things of greater importance than ourselves.
Too often, our daily schedules distract us from a higher calling to engage in conversations of social responsibility.
In King’s era, he faced threats of violence, mobilized a civil rights movement and challenged the prevailing notions of race held by a nation.
He had a family. He had friends. He could have left well enough alone and chosen a safer path of inaction. But he didn’t.
We are simply tasked with continuing his mission by stepping outside ourselves to reflect on his work, and the work of others, to make this world better and we should challenge ourselves to get involved with social movements of the day.
King’s message, although 50 years past, will continue to remain prominent for decades to come.
Why? Because those who triumph over personal self-interest in fulfillment of their dreams rest long in memory.
When King preached his visions of the world, he preached fervently of a humanity without barriers dividing one another, of a future where people live prosperously and harmoniously.
We, both individuals and institutions, have leapt bounds in that direction.
Now the fight of our ever-globalized world is not segregation, but integration. The goal is not solely to walk among one another in indifference, but to understand where our peers are coming from and work with them to obtain a truly equal society.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” King said. “I have a dream today.”
Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Today.
As students, the obstacles and distractions we endure are vastly different from King’s. Even so, the mind can raise a mountain from a molehill.
We must find time every day to step away from our self-focus if we wish to reach the plateau on which King’s vision rests and for which the bells still toll 50 years past.
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