Out of the Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope

It being MLK Day and all, I felt a little guilty about devoting most of the day's earlier posting to the winter weather and the exhorbitant cost of living in Manhattan.
So I thought I'd dedicate this posting to the man for whom this holiday is named.
It's hard for someone who was born white, and who was born four years after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, to fully appreciate his contributions. But as a woman, and one whose grandfather emigrated to the U.S. from Ireland just 50 years after the stroefronts in my city had removed their "No Irish Need Apply" signs, I can appreciate the sacrifices that our forefathers (and foremothers) made so that I may enjoy the freedom and opportunities I have today.
Just 36 years after Martin Luther King was killed, two African-Americans--one of them a women--were among the candidates for the Democratic nominee for U.S. president this year. Of course, there was little chance that either of them would win (and, in fairness, Carol Moseley Braun wasn't the first black woman to make a run for the presidency--Shirley Chisolm, who died earlier this month at 80, ran for president in 1972). But I strongly believe that I will live to see an African American and a woman--and I don't mean a First Lady--in the White House.
And, for that--among many other gifts (like the fact that most of my peers and I can't even imagine living in a country segregated by race or religion)--we have civil rights activists like Martin Luther King Jr. to thank.
It's hard to believe that he received the Nobel Peace Prize at 35 (the youngest man ever to have won the prize). It may be even harder for some to conceive that, when he was notified of his selection, Martin Luther King announced that he would turn over all the prize money (then $54,123) to the advancement of the civil rights movement.
He was assassinated three years later.
In 1963, Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. I reread it tonight. It's beautifully written. And prophetic.
"I have a dream," he said, "that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
I'd like to think that day is now. But is it? Have we just substituted Arabs for African-Americans in post-9/11 America? I hope not.