Imagine That!

So I was watching GMA (Good Morning America) this morning. They were interviewing some of the people who were nearest in proximity to Martin Luther King while he made his Famous “I have a dream” speech at Lincoln Memorial. One of the men who I think was on the speech writing staff said that the “I have a dream” theme was not even supposed to be in that speech. They said they had decisively cut that part out! Apparently he had made this same speech several times on the road and they felt that it had become “hackneyed and trite.” So King had started out not even intending to say those words. He was inspired though to revive it when he looked out at the people. The man on his speech writing staff said he cursed to himself when King started in on “I have a dream.” But when he saw how people responded he realized that they had been wrong and he said “It just goes to show how much we didn’t know.” Can you even begin to imagine that speech with out “I have a dream?” We still don’t know as much as we think we do. Experts always fall short.

I have heard people make general statements about predictions they’ve have about this presidential campaign from the beginning based on campaigns from the past and experiences from the past and numbers and polls and social demographics and likelihoods and more. But the thing is you don’t really know anything until it happens. There is so much more involved in this process than we can possibly know about. We listen to the media and our friends, family co-workers and peers spout endless speculations about all matter of things, based on social trends, past experiences and all sorts of external factors. But there are other factors which we cannot always accurately figure into our assumptions. Factors like the power of hope, the desire for change, stubbornness, ignorance, the desire for power, the power of fear, and the degree to which they affect a people’s evolution, unity and growth or lack thereof. These factors have the power to sway the direction of a country to its highest potential and its darkest lows.

What I do these days is mostly listen to people and if I hear something like “This will never happen” or “That person will never make it” or “You can’t beat the system.” I don’t waste my time trying to challenge them. I just listen, stay quiet and watch what happens. No one person knows everything. People will give advice, opinions ad predictions until the end of time. The answers come only in the moment. Expertise helps to guide us but information is so biased these days that it’s hard to find a network that will tell you only the truth. You have to find that out for yourself. In the end we all stand still to witness the moment of truth. When those people at the Lincoln Memorial who were lucky enough to witness King speak watched what happened, they were indelibly marked by history. And that speech wasn’t even supposed to take place! Watch what happens.