I, too, have a dream...

It would figure that I would completely miss the fact that it's Martin Luther King Jr. Day... I headed out to Starbucks under the assumption that kids would be in school. NOW, this tiny shop is PACKED with dozens of small children and their respective families... So much for a quiet place to think and work. 

Since I'm trapped in the corner until the crowd dies down, I did have time to figure out why there is an influx of persons here this morning and it did get me thinking on the cause for this holiday. 

The quote "I have a dream..." continues to reverberate inside my head. Possibly the most inspirational speech ever given in America includes the dream of a better world. This dream of a world where people respect and treat each other not just as equals, but as better than what we are, is still not the reality that we all experience. In fact, I would dare say that we've fallen seriously short of achieving this dream. 

In our own minds, the dream of equality can only be reached if WE get what's OURS. If WE can nab the respect due to US. We've become increasingly ego-centric in our aims at equality. We demand justice, we shout for our rights. We tread on the liberties of others to right the offense that has damaged our pride. It is this very course of action that disrupts the dream...

I have found this simple concept true time and time again - In order to GET respect, you have to GIVE respect. Sadly, this concept hardly makes it through the tender pride and calloused hearts of today's society. It is rarely implemented; it is not appreciated and applauded when exemplified. It is ridiculed, denounced, avoided, and hushed. Why? Because it is difficult for anyone to GIVE what is not deserved. 

But giving to others what they don't deserve is precisely the action of character that makes us deserving.

There is still a struggle today. Everyone is demanding what they feel they "deserve." We protest, we complain, we riot. We do this because it's been successful in the past. If we don't get it, we take it. It's ours, we "deserve" it. Whatever legitimacy we have to our entitlement is lost when we choose to behave in an undeserving way. We have become children throwing tantrums just to get another cup of milk. 

Sadly, the dream is still just that; a dream nestled in the heart of freedom. An ideal that still eludes reality because too many have traded patience for convenience, virtue for entitlement, morality for money...

My dream won't be real until people wake up and morally contend with the issues plaguing our nation:

- Abortion
- Same sex marriages
- Rampant unemployment (Due to bloated profits and higher taxes)
- Moral erosion
- Family disintegration
- Out of control Politicians
- General apathy for others

Folks, at the core of these issues is a common cause. This cause cannot be counteracted by any legislature, it cannot be stopped by any petition, it cannot be undone by any committee. No, the cause of these problems has to do with a rotten heart and seared soul. The problem is a heart problem. We have lost our way, America. We have forfeited the dream for the nightmare of self-entitlement. We do not give and soon there will be nothing to take.

Bravo. You've spat on the grave of every single person who sacrificed their time and lives to give you the freedom to throw your liberty away...

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day.