Over 50 years ago, a dream stirred up a national awareness and action for freedom. The declaration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream created this chapter of freedom we experience in our society today. It was a dream meant to spark peace and freedom at home America and inspire a global security. Now there is a next chapter of freedom for us in our communities. Global peace and freedom from poverty, corruption and social grouping require a world of new dreamers. These are young people who like MLK are unbiased but have developed the ability to stand for, act on and lead the dream for a free healthy global society.
At age ten, I pursued my dream of being Africa’s first astronaut. I remembered building and attempting to launch my homemade coal-powered rockets a few times. I was quietly dedicated to my vision of having the first African space station before I received my first career advice. It was then I was instructed about considering a more popular ‘guaranteed-success’ career that matched my brilliant aptitude for mathematics. Since no one had been interested in my dreams but rather my grades, the advice seemed logical. And just like that I abandoned my dream of reaching for the stars. Likewise, in a pursuit of happiness, many young girls and boys had abandoned or lost their self-identities and dreams.
What if losing dreams is at the heart of our social-class barrier cycle? I lived a mundane adult life, waiting and surviving in the cycle for over two decades. The call for us today is to end this cycle regardless of its momentum to persist. This is by promoting dreaming to develop a child’s ability required to learn how, to create a fulfilling life and succeed. Yeats wrote, “In dreams begin responsibilities.” I believe the primary goal of schools is to teach skills and enrich a child’s aptitude. Hence, the dream for freedom becomes your responsibility. Just as King’s dream was the wellspring of our present civilization, he said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” For this reason, listening to all children’s dreams is a matter of global security.
Creativity is a key characteristic of success, and it is dreaming that keeps our creativity alive. As a citizen dreaming of a healthy community, it’s my commitment for every child to dream freely and have a balanced ‘literacy and creativity’ education. By giving my time to simple activities, such as visits to a local library with children in my community or participating in my office’s organized LEGO league program with local elementary schools, it’s inspiring a child’s creativity. Listening to and believing a child’s dream in your community is your unique service to creating a healthy society. You can dream anew a freedom of creating liveliness for you and the next generation.