The Dare Dreamer Movement by Julene Fleurmond

You are browsing the archives of 2008 January.

I really enjoyed The Dream Lives Special Presentation on today’s Oprah Winfrey Show. If you missed it you can read the stories on the website or even pre-order a copy of the presentation on DVD. It was inspiring to view stories about interracial relationships, the history of civil rights in the United States, and ways of how everyday people today are living Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of freedom and unity.

The last story was of how a bus driver in Los Angeles, Tanya, encouraged her students to improve their grades. She started an organization where she drove the children around and took them on trips to view places around the world, places like civil rights sites and “a marine biology cruise just a short ride away from the inner city”.

Tanya explained, “…a few of my students pulled me to the side and said, ‘Miss Walters, I didn’t realize there was a life outside my community,'” she says. “And that gave me the strength to know that I had a purpose in life.”

Tanya said that the trips began to change the children. She says, “They’re able to link history together, and I think that’s what our youth need right now is to know that people came from all walks of background and [have] struggled for all different reasons.”

“They go through life, and they think that they can’t achieve. They think that they won’t amount to anything. And it’s not such!” Tanya says. “My goal, when I bring our kids together, is for them to dream again, for them to bring back hope. Because when you have hope, you have determination.”

Watching that last story strung a cord in me, and made me begin to think about what could be done to help younger people, like those I saw everyday in my inner-city community in South Florida, keep dreaming. I think its so true that if young people don’t know what’s possible or what’s beyond the walls of their neighborhoods, they can’t really dream to full extent. Without dreams, there’s nothing to strive toward, nothing to wish for, nothing to drive one to keep going.

Langston Hughes said it the best in his poem:

Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird, That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams, For when dreams go
Life is a barren field, Frozen with snow.

– Langston Hughes

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Note: I’ll be taking a short hiatus from posting, because of my workload at school and business. I’ll be back the last week of February with all new posts!

Let the Dream Live
A Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King
By: DreamFleur aka Julene

They had a dream;
A dream of a world where people of all races
Of ALL colors
Could join hands in unity
To overcome injustice.
A dream –
Where one would “not be judged
By the color of his skin,
Buy by the content of his character.”
A dream of freedom,
Where a child did not have to fear
what he was, the way he was made
Did not have to be ashamed of himself
But could live, play, learn, in peace.
Are you living that dream today?

We must not be chained to
The lead weight of prejudice.
We must disperse the clouds of darkness
That blind us,
That cause us to discriminate even
Against our own kind.
We must not let our words,
Strip another of his right to live freely
Through gossip, criticism and judgment.
Instead we must realize that
We were all created equal,
By the same Creator,
Not the God of Black people
But the God of ALL people.
We must not let our words or actions
Separate us from one another;
Because “whatever affects one directly,
Affects all indirectly.”

We must realize
That our lives are not merely for our own gain
For our own pleasure,
For the pursuit of the physical, the material
For power, status, for wealth.
The true prize comes,
When we help one another
Reach the dream.
When we assist our brothers and sisters of ANY color
And resist the urge to live life for our own survival.
“We must learn to live together as brothers
Or perish together as fools.”

The dream, the sweat, the tears, the pain
That those who before us bore
Was not endured in vain.
The sky is boundless
To the possibilities that our lives can bring.
So let freedom ring from your actions
Let freedom ring from your passion in life
Let it ring from your words,
From your choices.
Let us not “satisfy our thirst for freedom
by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”
Let us not let the darkness of ignorance
corrode, paralyze, confuse and plunge us
“Into the dark abyss of annihilation.”

Let us remember where we came from;
Let us celebrate what was done to get us here
Let us act to keep the dream alive.
Let us televise the dream
So that our children can see its beauty
So that others can notice the difference,
So that others can be inspired.
Let us live vigilantly until we are free at last,
Until “justice rolls down like waters and
Righteousness like a mighty stream.”

They had a dream
A dream for ALL of God’s children
Black, white, red, yellow, and brown
To be granted the right to live richly
Freely, purposely, confidently.
Will you live the dream, or
Will YOU let that dream die?

Quotations taken from various speeches of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

“Let us give the the phrase ‘living well’ a new, deeper meaning, not living well [just] in the material sense, but let’s try to live well by becoming more loving, more caring and compassionate, more generous and open-hearted to people in need, not only in our own country, but around the world.”

– Coretta Scott King (1927-2006)

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Note: This poem I wrote was previously published in my University’s Unified Newsletter.

Happy New Year everyone! I am recovering from a minor surgery but will be back with more updates very soon. In the meantime, the quotes in the banner above are motivation for me to get my dreams out and into reality in the New Year. How simple yet true is the last one, “To begin, begin.” – William Wordsworth. I have a feeling it will be a Great 2008 (as my friend Evy calls it)… I wish everyone the best in the New Year!