I Have a Dream . . .When the Impossible Became Possible

Today is a day of remembering in our household. Fifty years ago today, my beloved husband was part of the March on Washington. I asked him to be my guest essayist and write about what this experience meant for him.                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                      ~  Elizabeth

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There are many quotes by Martin Luther King . . . but I chose this one to reflect upon this week.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter.

When Elizabeth and I graduated from college, we married and moved from western Minnesota’s prairie to Washington, DC. The cultural differences and learning curves for both of us were immense! What an exciting and challenging time to live in this international city. It was a time much like today's world with many contemporary cultural changes and learning curves surrounding and penetrating us on a daily basis!

I remember the sky-blue Wednesday of August 28, 1963, the day of the March on Washington. On the day of the March, I was determined to make a difference! While Elizabeth spent her day at work - scared stiff for my life. There were predictions of possible violence. No one knew what was going to happen. And nobody knew how many people would actually come.

People kept coming and coming. The mass of marchers became huge. At the time, Washington DC newspapers and news reports argued as to the number. Early media reports said not even 100,000 “if that many.” Observers and March organizers maintained that there were at least 250,000 people. For myself, I was so naive. I thought everyone would come forward to "speak out with their feet." It was a way we could take action to make a difference.

I remember walking just four steps behind Martin Luther King. I was pressed to the front of the crowd, and ended up just at the base of the steps leading up to the Lincoln Memorial. I was enthralled by the music of Marian Anderson, Odetta, Dylan, Joan Baez, Mahalia Jackson, and Peter, Paul, and Mary. But it was the I Have A Dream Speech sounding forth by Dr. King that was the heady climax of an incredible day.

How could I have been so privileged as to be part of this movement that refused to be thwarted! This day changed my life forever. It became for me a new lens to look at the world in myriad ways.

But the time is now, August 28, 2013 . . .  so many of the same challenges still face us and our world. As well as many new ones that we couldn't even have imagined in 1963.

I would like to share something I wrote a couple years ago.

                                                                                                 

Been There, Done That!

I paused in the hallway with a mom and dad and their young daughter. The dad said to me,

I told her that you had been in the March on Washington. 

Marcie, tell him where you just were!

She replied, her eyes shining,

My class went to Washington, DC and 

I stood right in front of Martin Luther King’s statue, 

right in front. See, here is my picture!  

          

We paused there in the hallway, just looking at each other. Then I said,

Marcie, I have never seen that statue of Martin Luther King 

that you stood in front of . . . and do you know what?  

You were not there to walk with Martin Luther King, 

and yet – both of us have been there. 

She smiled a big smile and said,

I’m so glad!

                                                                  ~  Clem