FORUMS & LETTERS

Readers’ Forum
I have a dream today
By Robin Loving November 21, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Jay English attended the March on Washington in 1963, when Martin Luther King declared, “I have a dream” about racial equality in the US. Here are his reactions to having an African-American as president-elect.

Robin Loving: Please describe your experience at the March on Washington.

Jay English: As a communications specialist in the Air Force I was expressly forbidden to attend such exhibitions. But I felt my ancestors, slaves who died in the pursuit of freedom, pushing me to do something on behalf of my race. There I encountered people of all races and nationalities and continents, not just African-Americans. King, Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young and Ralph Abernathy were on stage and I got right in front. The passion of their words made me understand that my experience was no longer about me, but about the country.

RL: Have you ever experienced racial prejudice?

JE: I grew up in New York, so I never felt prejudice until I moved to the South, where all of a sudden I was asked to drink from “Coloreds Only” water fountains and to pay full price to go to the movies and sit upstairs with other African-Americans on hard benches instead of in the comfortable seats that other patrons had. I was in the eighth grade when I lost my first friend because of the racial divide. We reunited as adults and he regretted that we’d ever parted.

RL: How did you feel when Barack Obama won?

JE: After President Kennedy, MLK and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, I thought that the equality movement was over. So when Obama announced his candidacy, I expected dirty tricks to prevent him from having a fair chance. When he won the primary, I felt the racial equality movement come alive again. I sensed the US—not just African-Americans—could benefit.

When he was elected, memories of King’s dream flooded back to me. His dream was for all people, for he knew that it would take more than one race to change the country. I had lived in Selma, Alabama, and the March began three blocks from my home. I had lived in Hempstead, New York, where Obama debated at Hofstra University. I feel that King paved a road that eventually allowed me and my wife, who’s also African-American, to move to San Miguel, but vote here as Americans. Our votes counted and now Obama, an African-American, will be President.

RL: What impact do you see on your children and grandchildren?

JE: I’ve always told my children that there’s nothing they can’t do if they work hard enough and do their best. It’s all about personal responsibility. Because we will have an African-American as President, the world will take a fresh look at the US. The country will now be a positive model for the world and will no longer tolerate keeping people down. There’s now an immediate future for all children. Before Obama, there were barriers. Now, there are only hurdles. There are no more excuses.

RL: How do you feel today, one week after the election?

JE: I feel I’m coming out of a dream. I’m elated! I’m still high! I don’t think my feet have touched the ground yet. I could relate to Jackson’s tears the day Martin shared his dream and I could relate to them on election night. The fight was so hard! I never dreamed it would be won in my lifetime. I knew it would be won, but maybe only for my kids, or theirs. We’ve come far. King did not die in vain.

“A joyous daybreak . . .”

“For many of our white brothers as evidenced by their presence here today have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and that they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone…. 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.’ … With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling disorder of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”

—Martin Luther King at the March on Washington




“That American spirit, that American promise, pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend…. That promise is our greatest inheritance…. And it is that promise that, 45 years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington. We cannot turn back. We must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise, that American promise.” 

—President-elect Barack Obama

Robin Loving Rowland may be contacted at robin@robinloving.com , 152-3709 or (925) 418-8003 in the US.

Letters

Editor,

We hope you might do us the great favor of publishing this apology to supporters of IREE and the Deaf Film series.

There was an unexpected change in time of the November 13 screening of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter at the Teatro Santa Ana, from the announced 5pm to 3pm. We are very sorry that people missed the screening. To make amends, we would like to offer the Thanksgiving screening of the delightful British film Dear Frankie, on Thursday, November 27, free to all as a token of our thanks to those who have been supporting and/or wish to support the Deaf Film series and the IREE School for the Deaf.

Please do not let this unfortunate mix-up discourage you from attending the excellent and unusual films still to come in the series, Children of a Lesser God, Black (made in India), My Beautiful Jinjiimaa (made in Mongolia) and Babel (filmed in Morrocco, Mexico and Japan as well as the US by Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu).

Holly Yasui and Cecilia Escobar