Dreams to Reality?
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech remains the seminal moment of the 1960s American civil rights movement. Mainly rhetoric, orated in the Baptist sermon tradition, and filled with anaphora, his words resonate and reverberate worldwide even to this day.
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.
And while it can be argued whether this great country of ours has made significant strides in equality since that stirring day in 1963 — as the dream, for many, continues to be incongruous with their present reality — the power of Dr. King's message lies in hope and in the challenge to manifest our own dreams. As he once stated, "change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent."
Cycling's racial inequality, likewise, remains a conundrum. Since I broached the topic two years ago, little has changed in the representation, access, or in the manner by which the underprivileged are developed in the sport of cycling. But, in Rahsaan Bahati, the wheels of change have recently been put in motion.
Formerly of Rock Racing, Bahati who was "exposed to the gangs, drugs and crime that proliferated his South Central Los Angeles neighborhood' while growing up, has chosen to dream of a different path for children in underprivileged areas. Through the sport of cycling, the Bahati Foundation hopes "to help shape kids lives the way his was shaped. It is an opportunity to show kids in underprivileged areas that you don’t have to be relegated to a life of crime, gangs and drugs; they have the ability to accomplish their dreams."
It may be some time until Bahati's labors produce any fruit, and a team full of color lines up at the Tour de France, but in the words of Dr. King, "let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. I have a dream today!"
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