Martin Luther King Day, January 19th 2009

Today is Martin Luther King National Holiday in the USA. Tomorrow is Barak Obama’s Inauguration on Capitol Hill. The recent poll amongst US blacks resulted in them overwhelmingly agree that Dr Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech delivered on the base of the Lincoln Memorial, has finally become reality.

In essence the speech was that he believed one day all Americans, Black and White will be equal and live without the bondage created by race. I need not say how apt the inauguration of the new US President, the first African American, follows the MLK holiday which is the reason why the African Americans finally feel empowered to even state this fact.

As an immigrant American, I get misty eyed at the significance of this symbolism and wish I had the time to watch the inauguration. Sadly I have to work and will miss the news and TV coverage of this momentous event. My thoughts and prayers are with the event and the new President, and I hope that he will be able to achieve some of the expectations the whole world has on his Presidency. We cannot predict the future, but having optimism that events will improve is worth holding on to.

The crisis the world is facing this year is unprecedented and occurs once in anyone’s lifetime. In some cases this is number two for some people like my father who was born in 1928 and so lived through the crash of 1929 and the depression of the 1930s where his grandfather who had so much went bankrupt. Even then the world crisis affected the world not just a country. This time too no matter what one says it has affected everyone in one way or another. The solution to this crisis needs someone with charisma, hope and optimism to be in charge and I believe we could not have hoped for a better person to take the helm. The saying goes that God works in mysterious ways when the heart is right!! HE SURE DOES.

It is therefore apt that with the fulfillment of the dream, the new challenge of the century is now handed to the man who takes up this mantle. I wish I were able to see a video of the whole “I have a dream” speech as one needs to listen to this again today to understand more fully the whole significance of the day and how it seamlessly relates to the events of tomorrow. I pray that all young people in the world are taught this story of courage to give them an overview of history and of how important an event tomorrow is.