Another Dream - A Message on this Important Day

In the last few days and in light of these all-important current events, one of the most revered figures in History has sent a message to support the drive for a new black hero.

Five score years ago, this day would not have been possible, but the day has arrived and joy is upon us.

One hundred years later, the voice of a champion echoes throughout the world. If this champion was sadly slowed this year by the manacles of competition and the chains of discrimination within his very own team, he revels in the glory of triumph today.

One hundred years later, this hero will live in a sea of wealth and public adulation. One hundred years later, this hero was languishing in the corners trying to squeeze out a victory for mankind.

Now, as we cheer these accomplishments on we are here to cash a check, on the basis of a bet that was made before these races started, that this hero would win it all.

Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity and acknowledge the speed at which this man travelled to achieve these feats. Now is the time to lift our heads from the sand and recognize the adversity of the twists and turns he negotiated through to come to this point in History.

It would be fatal to overlook how he consistently found new speeds to shift himself to another gear and propel himself to victory. It would be wrong to underestimate the prophetic aura of the qualifying rounds that paved his ascent to splendid victory. Thrusting himself at a furious pace with elating determination in the sweltering summer and willing himself to the highest march on the podium by fall.

And when he needed to blow off steam, we let him as he came to terms with the harsh rivalry his opponent, within his own ranks, afflicted him with. And that was a rude awakening but he moved on and returned to business as usual, and now has shaken the foundations of this circuit for History to inscribe.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold of this towering podium. As before he had drunk from the cup of bitterness, today he sips champagne from the fruit of victory and leads this world into the palace of justice. And we must accept our reticence and bow to our fears that every time we thought he would run out of gas, he reminded us we were wrong.

In the process of gaining your rightful place we must not be guilty. We know how your nerves of steel showed in pitts. We know now that you wore a mask throughout this campaign to hide your face and not play on the pretense of race.

Engaged in this passionate race, we have all come to realize that our destiny is tied up with your destiny and that as you cross the finish line, we stand with you. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. We will not look back, into the rear view mirrors of doubt and injustice, nor engage in the lanes of eagerness and sloth.

"When will you be satisfied?" as he stands at the top, this champion of our cause. Will you be satisfied if at the final turn of the next long marathon, he no longer holds this crown? We can never be satisfied. Because he is the very first black man to move into this conversation of equality and victory and we will want to keep him there forever. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until his engines of hope rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.

I have a dream that one day this man will repeat the feats he has accomplished today.

I have a dream that one day these races will all be equal, and that all tracks shall be maintained in proper condition so as not to slow the process of democracy.

I have a dream where everyone may hold hands, and watch this man as he steers himself to glory, again and again. Where we can see the meaning and beauty of both colors in the checkered flag at the line, and in our checkered pasts.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which we may infuse our homes. 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 formula, won over by brotherhood.

We have elected this figure into our unconscious soul as we yearn for a just world. Let freedom ring from the bleachers of our coliseums. Let the red lights turn to green as we give way to equality. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous turns of these dangerous tracks. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. When we let 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 as he speeds to victory when all of God's children may aspire to this title. "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." Not this man, not Lewis Hamilton. He's so fast, he's so fast, thank God Almighty, he drove so fast.