This cynical parody of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s great historical address I Have A Dream depicts broken dreams, shattered hopes and deep sadness. Written 12/21/2002 while deeply depressed. Please don't take this seriously; it's black humor! Apologies to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Fifty years ago, the Huns gave themselves a modern constitution. It started with the promising words: The Dignity of Humans is Inalienable. This basic decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of humans who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of humiliation and rightlessness.
But fifty years later, we had to face the fact, that some people were still not free. Fifty years later, the life of the legal alien was still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. Fifty years later, foreign citizens were still being blackmailed with legal persecution by their white neighbors. Fifty years later, people were still being hated because they didn't fully belong to the Huns gene pool. So we had come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense, we had come to the city of Bacon to cash a check. When the architects of the Huns' republic wrote the magnificent words of their Basic Law, they were signing a promissory note to which every Hun, Man and Woman, was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all people would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life and dignity (unfortunately not of the pursuit of happiness; sadly enough).
It was obvious for so many years, that Hun-land had defaulted on this promissory note insofar as foreigners were concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, Huns gave their under-dogs a bad check which had come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refused to believe that the bank of compassion was bankrupt. We refused to believe that there were insufficient funds in the great vaults of the codified humanity of this new nation. So we came to cash this check -- a check that would give us back, upon demand, the right to our Dignity as Human Beings.
We also came to this cold dark place to remind the Huns of the fierce urgency of now. This was no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism and temporal separation. Now was the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial, legal, and social justice. Now was the time to open the doors of serenity and peace to all of God's children. Now was the time to lift Hun-land from the quicksands of racial and cultural discrimination to the solid rocks of respect, mutual tolerance, understanding, friendship and even brotherhood.
But there is something that I've always said to my people who stood on the then deceiving warm threshold which should have lead into the palace of justice and reconciliation. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must never have been guilty of wrongful deeds. We should never have seeked to satisfy our thirst for respect by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We should have forever conducted our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We should never have allowed our creative protest to degenerate into psychological harrasment. Again and again, we should have risen to the majestic of meeting emotional abuse with soul force and patience. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed some of Huns' foreign serfs should never have lead us to distrust all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidence by their presence, patience and compassion on that dark, dreary day to talk to us as Human Beings, have come to realize that their destiny was tied up with our destiny and their freedom was inextricably bound to our freedom. We could not walk alone and stand a chance to survive that day.
As we had walked that day, we had made the pledge that we should have marched ahead. We could not have turned back. There were those who kept asking the devotees of Human Rights: "Could you not respect our will to oppress you further?" We could never accept this haughty sentence as long as it didn't conceal a time limit or at least reveal a light at the end of the tunnel. We would have patiently accepted oppression and (gratuitous? we never knew why!) punishment, for as long as deemed necessary, if we knew deep down, that it was but for a moment in life and would have been bound to end someday. Be we could never have accepted a sentence that prevented us from living our own life peacefully, side by side with this nations' rulers. We could never have resigned to the tortures of guilt trips, dehumanization and legal blackmail, just because we've tried to reach our hands to our brothers and sisters in Humanity. No, we could not have accepted to be mistakingly held responsible for all misdeeds in the Huns' society in general or personal life's in particular. We've never excelled in the role of a scapegoat, even if we'd really played it for our oppressors, if it would have helped them to ease their wounded minds. No, no, we could not be satisfied with our under-dogs' position, and would not have been satisfied until justice and tolerance rolled down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I was not unmindful that some of us have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of us have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of us have come from areas where our quest for humanity and freedom left us battered by the storms of cold, unforgiving hatred and staggered by the winds of legal discrimination. We've been the veterans of creative suffering. Until the end of our miserable lives, we'll continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
We've crawled back into our holes, wounded and nearly crushed. But we hoped that this situation would have changed one day. Now, we would forever wallow in the valley of despair from that day on.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still had a dream back then. It was a dream deeply rooted in the All-Human Dream.
I had a dream that day, that this nation would have risen up and lived the true meaning of its creed: "The Dignity of Humans is Inalienable."
I had a dream that day, that even within the bureaucratic centers of oppression, sons of the formally rightless and daughters of the haughty Huns would have been able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I had a dream that day, that even in the eastern sub-state of Westhunia, a cruel state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, would have been transformed into an oasis of freedom, justice and tolerance.
I had a dream that my future children would have had a chance one day to live in a nation where they would not have been judged by their nationality or ethnic appartenance, but by the content of their character.
I had a dream that day.
I had a dream that one day, the burocrats of Triaconia, whose counselor's lips were presently dripping with the words of deception and nullification, would have been transformed into a tolerant crowd where sympathy-seekers would have been able to join hands with haughty Huns and finally walked together as brothers and sisters.
I had a dream that day.
I had a dream that one day, every valley shall have been exalted, every hill and mountain shall have been made low, the rough places would have been made plain, and the crooked places would have been made straight, and the glory of the Lord would have been revealed, and all flesh would have seen it together.
This was our hope. This was the faith with which I hoped to return to the West. With this faith, we would have been able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we would have been able to transform the jangling discords of Hun-land into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we would have been able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we would have been free one day.
This would have been the day when all of God's children would have been able to sing with a new meaning, "Unity, and Right and Freedom, are Happiness' Foundation..."
And if the nation of the Huns would have been a great nation, this would have become true.
We were not allowed to let freedom ring; those who tried it were quickly dismissed and left over in a state of sheer hopelessness. We were alone, terrified by the oppressious regime in the land of the Huns. Some of us survived only, because Hun bureaucracy denied us even our death wish. We failed in our attempt to gain back our Basic Humanity.
I had a dream that day.
This parody is Copyright © 2002, 2003 Farid Hajji. All rights reserved. Reproduction without written permission explicitly forbidden.
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