August 28, 1963

Credit: "US Government Photo"

[Excerpt of "I Have a Dream" courtesy of "American Rhetoric" website. Full speech can be seen and heard at www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm]

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 there 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, and 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, and 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.

And this will be the 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 Pilgrim's 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 snow-capped 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!

Stop-And-Frisk: Not Good For Citizens Or Police Officers

As a middle-aged white female who has experienced being pulled over by the police only a few times in her life (for admittedly legitimate reasons and by officers who usually let me go with a polite warning to keep an eye on my speed), I sympathize with anyone who is going about their day, living their life, doing nothing wrong, yet gets targeted by police and questioned like a criminal.

A free society should have little tolerance for police officers who randomly detain innocent people – despite the hubbub that randomly stopping and frisking people can decrease crime rates.  

Police are trained to watch for suspicious activity, and the safety of themselves and society often depends on nothing more than their gut instincts. So, while I have zero intention of bad mouthing everyone who carries a badge (I happen to like cops a lot – they’re the ones I call when I need help), I am suggesting that statistics show that the NYPD has fallen into a pattern of letting the race, ethnicity and socio-economic status of citizens sway their decision on who looks like they’re up to no good and who doesn’t.

Based on New York’s own statistical reports, the numbers of citizens randomly stopped, interrogated and/or searched has steadily increased since 2002. Not surprisingly, blacks and Latinos have consistently experienced the highest number of detainments by police. Also worth noting is that police reports show that 82 to 89% of people who were stopped between 2002 and 2012 were “totally innocent.”  

Interestingly, along with this obvious pattern of profiling comes the officer-driven allegation that a so-called quota system keeps track of how many people they stop, frisk and question. If their numbers are not high enough, reprimands or sub-par performance evaluations may be leveled against them by supervisors or commanders.

If stop-and-frisk quotas truly exist, it is a daunting revelation as this endangers the lives of officers as citizens grow to dislike and distrust neighborhood police officers more and more, and officers are forced to ignore their gut instincts and focus on meeting the demands of ill-conceived quotas.  

But, NYPD statistics aren’t enough to rattle Mayor Bloomberg as he insists murder/crime rates are down in New York because more weapons and drugs are confiscated during random searches of citizens. We’ll have to wait and see what Bloomberg will do now as he vows to appeal the recent ruling of Judge Shira Scheindlin who believes the practice of random stop-and-frisk policies are unconstitutional.