Isn't that every person's dream? Don't we all hope and pray that our children, born or unborn, will know a better world and greater opportunities than we have known? Today is not about winning rights for any one race. It is not about competition between races or individuals. It is not even about celebrating one man's dream. It is about humanity. It is about understanding that we are all one race: children of God--a God who loves us and desires our happiness. It is about learning to love one another, to look beyond the outward appearance, to see ourselves and others as God sees us. It is about becoming united for the common good, even as we celebrate our differences.
This dream for humanity has not yet been fulfilled. It is certainly better than when this speech was given, nearly 50 years ago. But the day must yet come when we will all join hands, as brothers and sisters, without regard to color, religion, size, shape, etc., and sing together, "Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" We need to be able to say, as Thomas Jefferson penned so many years ago, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." We need to mean it. The blessings of liberty must, in God's due time, be extended not only to our children, but to all children, to all people. Remember that the God "inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile" (2 Nephi 26:33). We, too, must open our hearts to receive all people as children of God.
I second that!
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