Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr

The Martin Luther King Memorial. Credit: Charles Dharapak/AP



"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

On Sunday, August 28, 2011 a memorial will be dedicated in Washington, D.C. It is a memorial inspired from Rev. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."

There is the inevitable controversy that surrounds any major project of which I'm not going to go back over. The memorial is here and it stands as a great reminder of what our great country has come through. And while we still struggle today with racial equality and understanding, a change occurred those many years ago.

I have to think Reverend King would be pleased that we continue to talk to each other. He would be glad to know that we keep constructing the path he started to lay for all of us. While his dream is not completely fulfilled, he opened that hole in the wall which divided us. It is through this opening that we continue the dialog. It is through this opening that we reach out to each other.

Our differences in race, religion and ideology will continue to try and tear us apart as humans. We must continue to fight any efforts to close the wall of difference and divide us again. We must continue to work at tearing down forever that wall for all peoples.

On August 28, 1963, standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. a dream was revealed. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream which continues to inspire today. Dream our dreams, but we must act upon those dreams and one day all will realize those dreams.