"A Dream, that's still a Dream"

"Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair."

I will not reflect upon how Martin Luther King's speech incorporated pathos, ethos, or logos. I will not even go into detail on how his words touched so many people that sweltering hot day at the mall of Washington. I won't even mention why this speech was so moving.

I will reflect on how one particular line reflects how I feel about the African-American progress in the 21st century. I will reflect on how we, as African-Americans have lost the momentum for advancing ourselves as a whole. I will mention how we have done the opposite of what Roy Wilkin's speech "The Clock Will Not Be Turned Back" proclaimed. I will mention that Martin's speech "I Have A Dream" seems as if, it will merely be just a dream. I will mention how we have "wallowed in the valley of despair."

Two nights ago my cousin didn't come home. He's not really my cousin, but my grandmother has cared for him through the foster care system for six years. The past three years, he has steadily grown rebellious. All he talks about is B's up C's down (reference to the gangs Crips and Bloods), making millions by going into the NFL (a mere fantasy), fighting some boys that looked at him the wrong way, and doing things that really didn't matter. He never really studied. I don't think even he cared. During the beginning of our senior year, he began to think about his future and realistic goals. He was going to enlist into the army right after he graduated. He was going to graduate from high school even though he was struggling. But somewhere, something went wrong. Maybe it was when he started high school that he realized that entering into the NFL was highly unlikely. Maybe it was when he grew very emotional and depressed about his 15 year old biological sister getting pregnant a year ago. Maybe it was the first day he entered his first foster care home. Maybe it was when his parents neglected him. But somewhere, something went wrong and for the past 4 months all he has talked about is running away. His family has told him multiple times that they don't want him. He has no money. He has no place to stay and my grandmother has been patient through his ups and downs, his disrespectful behavior, and his attitude of not caring. My grandmother is getting tired, and Wednesday was the day that he legally was not obligated to stay with my grandmother. He turned 18 Wednesday. My grandmother wanted him to stay and finish school. She also wanted him to keep his job that he quit for the fourth time. She wanted him to do something with his life, even though his family didn't support him, his friends weren't helping him, and his environment wasn't motivating him. We all were rooting for him. We all didn't want to see him wallow in his despair. But Wednesday night he didn't come home. He packed his clothes in a trash bag and came back for it sometime on Thursday. He's gone. We've done everything to help him, but he has made stupid decisions for the past two years to the point that we have grown tired of helping him. Two months before graduating he has decided to drop out. Is it his fault? Or is it his parents fault? Or should it even matter? He was lucky for being placed with my grandmother and my family. Instead of giving up he should of kept going. Now we (my family) will never know his potential. And that's the problem that I think our African-American community is facing today.

We are giving up and wallowing in our despair. So what you grew up around drugs. So what that our ancestors were enslaved. So what we've had to struggle for years with injustice and discrimination. Rise up from despair and move forward. If the white system is not going to help us then we have to help ourselves. I think that this was Martin Luther King's real dream. His dream was to keep moving even in the face of adversary. We are suffering and we are falling back. We are killing ourselves by giving in to violence, drugs, sex, and broken homes. If we continue, Martin's dream will remain a dream, and then just a mere fantasy.