I Have A Dream...

"The cost of ignorance is incredible."  My coffee cup wielding hand paused halfway to my mouth when I heard these words by Mayor Cory Booker on "Meet the Press" over this past weekend.  I found myself thinking, no kidding Mr. Mayor.  Tell that to my neighbor who dressed in a Klan hood for Halloween last year, waving at passing cars on the street corner.  Tell it to everyone who has ever raised an eyebrow when my five-year-old tells them he is homeschooled.  Tell it to anyone and everyone who has ever passed judgment (silently or out loud) on the parents of a special needs child who are just trying to make it through a public outing, despite fears, tears, and meltdowns on the part of the child.  I believe, on the whole, humanity has an innate desire to be kind toward one another.  The evidence is out there and I see it firsthand quite often.  However, somewhere, somehow, ignorance has crept in the cracks and crevices of our souls, gumming up the gears that turn compassion.  I don't know how else to explain the acts of cruelty we seem capable of as humans. 

Today is the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.  Just last week, I found myself explaining who Dr. King was and what he stood for to my five-year-old.  He couldn't comprehend a world where blacks and whites were segregated, and frankly, I hope he never does.  As I sat listening to Mayor Booker talk on my TV last weekend, I thought about ignorance.  The more I thought, the more I agreed with his statement.  The cost of ignorance is incredible.  The cost is hurt.  The cost is hate.  The cost is a life.  The cost is HUMANITY.  Dr. King's dream had to do with peace, harmony, acceptance, and love for one another.  I, a lowly housewife and mother, also have a dream.  It encompasses all the same things yours did, Dr. King.  I have a dream that ignorance be eradicated and in its place, acceptance, understanding, and love reign supreme.  Idyllic you say?  Maybe.  Soft you say?  Probably.  (Being a mom has kind of done that to me.)  But it is my dream.  Imagine a world full of people who, rather than judge and criticize, make an honest effort toward understanding and learning about one another.  That's the world I want for my children.  Heck, it's the world I want for myself.  Don't you?