Celebrate Martin Luther King

Today, we celebrate Martin Luther King 

Today is Martin Luther King's birthday, and it's a shame that after so many years since he gave his iconic speech, I Have a Dream that we still haven't gotten to fulfill his wish. 

His wish was a simple wish; he just wanted everyone to love one another. He wanted all of us to be equal, and he wanted us to judge each other not by color but by our souls. 

So why is it so hard for us? Why is it that after all these years we still can't get this right? It is truly a sad state of the world that we are still talking about this over 50 years later, and yet we have not evolved or grown since then. Though we made many strides by actually having our first black president, and we have many black people that hold jobs of high power and own their own companies yet we still have so much racism in this world. 

We celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday because he was a man of great vision; he was a kind man, a brave man who tried to put the world back together. He was trying to give equal rights to everyone. I'm always big about putting myself in someone else's shoes and I think that if we all tried to imagine what it would be like if we were black and were born in that time, or lived in this country back then. How would it feel if we were told that we had to sit at the back of the bus? If we were considered less than in other people's eyes, If we had to use different water fountains as if our germs would somehow poison somebody else? How would it feel if we weren't considered smart as others because of our skin color? If we are paid less and have to work harder, If we had to go in the back of different establishments because we weren't allowed to be seen going into the front even if we were headlining there?

What if we couldn't fall in love with someone who our heart loved because God forbid, it was a person of another color, and we could get killed or jailed for that. Imagine every day fearing for your life, fearing that you might be hung or that a cross might be burned in your yard in front of your children. 

I don't know what it is like to be afraid because of the color of my skin, but I do know what it's like to be afraid for the people I love. To be worried and praying when they are pulled over or harassed that they may be killed or arrested just for being black. 

Imagine tomorrow morning you wake up and you were the one that was targeted, if all of a sudden white people or people with disabilities, or Irish people, Catholics or whatever you, were suddenly targeted simply because of the color of your skin or what you believed in, how would you feel? 

You would pray for someone to stand up for your rights. A man like this man, a man who stood up and said enough, is enough. A man that marched for your rights even though he was spit on, beaten, and talked about. A man that was degraded and laughed at only because his dream was for everyone to be equal.

If we could take a moment and look at it as if we were in somebody else's shoes, none of us would be racist. No, we would all have compassion for the other people because we would realize that God made us all, that we all bleed red, and when we die, we will all turn into dust.

We are all the same, and I write about this a lot because it's something that's near and dear to my heart. I have friends of all races, of all nationalities, and of all religions. It doesn't matter to me; what matters to me is that you are a good person. Do you have compassion? Are you kind? These are the important questions that we should be asking when we meet someone and not just judge them by the color of their skin or their religion. 

Remember, there is good and bad in all of us.

We were lucky to have had a great man like Martin Luther King, who had an incredible message of peace. He stood up to tell the world that we can all live together, black, white, Indian, Asian, it doesn't matter what color we are, we are all the same. In a time when the country was most divided, he had the courage to speak his message of hope.

He saw people for people; he didn't see race or religion, and he wasn't afraid to preach this message. He was an incredible man and humanitarian, and his life and words changed the world as everyone saw it. Life is too short; you need to let go of your hate for another human being based on race or religion. We are all the same. We all bleed red; we are all just trying to make it. We all want what's best for our family, we want to give our children a better life than we had, so if we all want these things then why must we hate someone who is different from ourselves? Why can't we celebrate the fact that we are not all the same? 

So today my friends, let's celebrate the fact that we are free, that I am allowed to worship in a church with my black friends, that there is no more segregation, that everyone is equal, just like he dreamed about and preached about all those years ago. But we still have such a way to go; we still must preach this message to so many who still have hate in their hearts. 

Let's keep his dream alive by changing the way you see others and judge them for their hearts, not their color. Accept people who are different, be a message of peace. One person can make a difference, one person like this great man, people like Rosa Parks, like you. We can change the world one message at a time; in doing that, we can and must keep his dream alive.

"Be the change you want to see."

@TreadmillTreats