I have a dream!

I am working for a company called Club Z Tutoring and part of my current assignment is to tutor two little girls, one 8 and one 12 who are from Somalia. I work with them in their apartment and have the added challenge of entertaining their two little sisters age 3 & 5 while we work! I have grown to love those 4 little girls, Halima, Maryamo, Mamona, and Hermisa!

Yesterday the 8 year old read me a story in one of the "Frog and Toad" books called, "Dreams". We talked about the story for a few minutes and then she said, "Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream." When I asked her if she knew what his dream was she instantly replied, "that little children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." I asked her to explain what that meant and she didn't miss a beat saying. "We should like people because they are nice and kind and work hard and we shouldn't not like people because they are black or white or brown." Then all the little girls started to talk at once (they had an 8 year old cousin visiting that day) telling me that a long time ago in America people who were black couldn't drink at the same water fountains or go to the same bathrooms or sit in the front of the bus or eat in a restaurant. I told them that when I was a little girl in Arkansas that was the way it was and they were amazed that I was that old. Then they asked me if I knew Martin Luther King and when I said no they were sure that I must have been at the "I Have a Dream Speech'. I told them that I was a little girl like they are now when he gave that speech but I did remember seeing it on television. One of the girls then told me how someone who "didn't have love and kindness in his heart killed Martin Luther King and that was so sad".

It was such a heart warming experience sitting there listening to these little girls share these tender feelings with me. We all laughed as we realized that I'm not white, I'm kind of pink and they aren't black they are more brown and that none of it matters.

I looked up Dr. King's speech when I got home. It was amazing!

• I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
• I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
• I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
• I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
• I have a dream that my four 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.
• I have a dream today.
• I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I think the scene in that living room fulfilled Dr. King's dream as this great, great granddaughter of slave owners enjoyed coloring, playing games and reading with four little girls from Africa!!!