Before Ira Glass became the big shot host of This American Life, he was a just a regular public radio nerd. At a lecture, we heard him recount a story he reported for NPR. A middle school teacher had taken his class to the Lincoln Memorial for Martin Luther King Day. He brought a recording of the famous “I Have A Dream” speech and played it from the stairs of the memorial. To Ira Glass, it seemed like a truly inspirational moment. To the kids, it was boring:

I turn to the kids to see what they think. And it turns out you can't get to the eighth grade in the inner city public schools in America without becoming rather familiar with the "I Have a Dream" speech. And all the kids are like, "That old speech? Again?" I said, "You've heard that before?" "Thousands of times. Thousands of times."

“I Have A Dream” is a great speech. We remember reading it in fifth grade, and thinking, “yeah, your four little children should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their
skin.” But we never learned about one other rights speech or any other black civil rights leaders.
At best, historic moments like the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Selma were multiple choice questions on American History tests. Like those school children, we’ve heard it so many times that it’s lost some of its meaning. For most working people, the speech just represents a three day weekend.

Equal rights, not just for blacks and whites, but for immigrants, gays, women, non-Christians, et al. is still a long way off. Let’s not settle for a dream.