Work Text:
I Have a Dream
As Chris lay in bed, his papa Buck having shown him the best speech he had ever heard from a man he had never heard of until now. He had been feeling down when Miss Flores had told the class that over the holidays, they were to write something on someone they honored and pointed out to him that it couldn’t be his daddy or papa it had to be someone else. He had really wanted to write about his family and didn’t know who to write about until papa had pulled up the speech he had watched and listened to when he came home that afternoon.
The next day was his two fathers’ last day of work, then they would have a day off for the holiday as the station had worked on the last holiday and would work New Years Eve and New Years. So, he was with Carla who he thought could help him with writing the speech.
I Have a Dream with parts taken from Martin Luther King’s Speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28th, 1963, in front of the Freedom Marchers who numbered over 200,000 people of both colors.
“Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
“So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, 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 the table of brotherhood.
“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
“I have a dream that my four little 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 down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.
“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
“This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
“This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.
“And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
“And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.”
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends, for I have a Dream."
He ended up in silence then applause from all the other family members there to see their children give their first speeches before an audience. Including his. With both Papa and Daddy having had their cameras filming the whole thing to show everyone else.
Yes, he had a dream.
Fini
12/16/2025