19 January 2009 Photo: Do You Have a Dream?

I was hoping to head up to the Syracuse University campus for a candlelight vigil in honor of MLK but the snow and cold kept me inside where it is warm and dry. So instead Bill remembered he had a Martin Luther King, Jr. commemorative stamp. When we went to look for it, we found it was on a card with John F. Kennedy. These historical figures have delivered two of the most profound speeches ever given.

Tomorrow Barack Obama will become our 44^th President and he has already proven himself to be a great speaker. Here is a combination of the speeches of these three men...amazing!

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shank from this responsibility - I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

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.”

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

YES WE CAN!