Um Sonho com 50 Anos...

“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

(…)

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

(…)

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

(…)

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, 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 (...)".

A 28 de Agosto de 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. partilhava connosco um sonho. O de uma sociedade justa onde “todos os homens” são criados iguais.

Passadas cinco décadas o sonho permanece por realizar. Às divisões raciais que de forma mais ou menos encapotada continuam a ensombrar o mundo dito desenvolvido, juntemos-lhes as crispações religiosas, a descriminação face ao género e opção sexual, e, não menos grave, o discrepante acesso a oportunidades com base na diferente condição socioeconómica, numa estratificação de classes dos tempos modernos.

Martin Luther King, cobardemente assassinado a 4 de Agosto de 1968, activista não só dos direitos dos negros mas dos mais desfavorecidos, despertaria no mundo de hoje certo que de o seu sonho continua a ser pouco mais do que uma bela miragem.