Despite progress, King's dream not yet fully realized

   Fifty years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to a throng of 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It is perhaps the finest speech ever given, especially when you consider that the famous "I have a dream" refrain was improvised on the spot. There's no doubt that the speech galvanized the civil rights movement. Less than a year after King spoke at the March on Washington, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which once and for all outlawed racial discrimination in this country. And a year after that, the Voting Rights Act became law. Clearly, King's speech made a lasting difference. But 50 years later, I think it's fair to ask if King's dream -- an inspiring vision of racial harmony and equality -- has yet been fully realized. Sadly, I think the answer is still "no."
   A lot has changed for the better in the past half century. Today, blacks and other minorities enjoy opportunities undreamed of by their parents and grandparents. Today, every American, regardless of race, has a chance to receive a quality education. Universities and other institutions of higher learning that once were closed to everyone but whites are now open to everyone. Today, blacks and other minorities serve in all levels of government -- something unheard of a half century ago. In 2008, our nation celebrated a milestone by electing our first black president in Barack Obama. That's something that many Americans -- including me -- never thought we'd see in our lifetimes.
   Today, anyone with a dream and the drive to make it happen can succeed, if only they take advantage of the myriad opportunities available to them. Still, as much as things have changed for the better in the past 50 years, now is no time to become complacent. A lot has been accomplished, yes. But we still have a long way to go to fully realize King's vision.
   We know we still have a long way to go when we have those who would rather sit on their front porch drinking their beer and blaming "the system" for keeping them down and in poverty instead of getting up and taking advantage of the opportunities that their parents and grandparents fought to provide them. We know we still have a long way to go when the prevailing attitudes in some communities is that becoming educated is "too white," and therefore a bad thing. We know we still have a long way to go when racial profiling is still a problem and innocent young black men such as Trayvon Martin can't walk down the street without fearing for their lives. And we know we still have a long way to go when the U.S. Supreme Court blindly assumes that time alone has healed the racial divide in America and guts the Voting Rights Act. Still need proof that "the dream" is not yet fully realized? Consider what happened after the Court announced its ruling on the Voting Rights Act. Texas, and a handful of other states immediately began enacting laws that had once been rejected by the Justice Department which will have the effect of disenfranchising a large number of minority voters.
   Don't misunderstand me. A lot has been accomplished since that hot August day in 1963. And we owe a huge debt of gratitude to those brave civil rights warriors who fought, sometimes even died, to ensure a better future for themselves, their children and their children's children. But if we think that King's dream has been accomplished because of a handful of laws and because we finally elected a black president, we are only fooling ourselves.
   King's dream can never be fully realized until every last vestige of racism has been stamped out of the minds and the hearts of every American. Until we can stop looking at each other with fear and suspicion, King's dream must live on. Until we can learn to learn to look at each other honestly -- not as black, white, Asian, Hispanic or Native American, but as people -- King's dream must live on. Until we can divest ourselves of hatred and finally put to rest the stereotypes that divide us, King's dream must live on. In short, until we can "judge each other, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character," we cannot honestly say that King's dream has been fully realized.