The United States could be portrayed as a stained glass window; millions of different shapes, sizes, and colors fitting together in perfect harmony. But this window is more fragile than it looks. In fact, for hundreds of years, this window of true American liberty wasn’t complete. Throughout the 1950s and ’60s, a national movement strove to finally complete the window that America’s Founding Fathers had started almost 200 years before. They strove tocomplete what Abraham Lincoln toiled on 100 years before. On August 28, 1963, thismovement climaxed with the March on Washington. More than 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial to protest unfair treatment and demand change. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his transcendent “I Have a Dream” speech, illustrating a more perfect America. An America that “live[s] out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” An America with freedom ringing from every “village, hamlet, state, and city.” An America where people are not “judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” 

It’s been 60 years, and King’s stirring words hit all the same. They were words of impossible hope though arduous times, the same type of hope we’ve needed these past few years. We’ve persevered through a global pandemic that has taken millions of lives. We’ve persevered through years of a stagnant and polarized country. And, most pertinent to King’s speech, we’ve persevered through years of racial injustice in policing. Since 2013, 11,081 Americans have been killed at the hands of the police. Of those people, 2,765 were black. That’s 25% in a country that’s 13.6% black. In his speech, King said, “we can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” Those words still stand. We, in 2023, after years of progress, must continue the great work of Civil Rights. We cannot slow down, because Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream isn’t yet realized. No one said it better than MLK himself: “we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

But what does that look like? For me, two simple ideas: a commitment to respect and to sacrifice for change. That means respect for all people. Respect people despite their skin color, despite their gender identity, despite their religion. Respect people for their personalities, and for, as Dr. King said, the “content of their character.” Now more than ever, it’s important for all of America to come together and respect each other.

We also must sacrifice to usher in change. We can spend time helping rebuild after another all-too-common tornado. We can sacrifice our time protesting the treatment of black Americans. Know that you can make a difference, and one day you’ll be able to say, “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.”