[This is a re-post of a column I did for the Daily Lobo newspaper at UNM, back in 2012 or 2013. I posted it to my blog in January, 2015…sadly, it’s still relevant today]

“I have a dream 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 have a dream…”

I always get chills when I see that clip of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, given in front of the Washington Monument at the March on Washington in August 1963. At the time, King’s message of hope and forgiveness resonated with people all over the world. The event was covered live on TV and it was arguably the turning point for the civil rights movement in America.

1963 was also the year of my birth. Even though I was too young to fully appreciate it at the time, I’ve carried King’s dream with me all of my life. King’s compassion, his ferocious intellect and most of all his passionate commitment to nonviolent protest still inspires me today. It may sound corny, but I think about him all the time, and I contemplate what a profoundly different world it would be if Dr. King were still here.

When we celebrate the MLK holiday this year, Americans must consider how far we still have to go before we realize King’s dream. Since his assassination in 1968, we’ve taken a huge step backwards in civil rights. The crippling disease of racism is making a major comeback in this country.

People have grown more intolerant of each other at a time when we all should be uniting for the greater good. We are a divided and utterly conquered nation.

King would have found the situation inexcusable and he would have done everything in his power to change things. His message is simple: If we can’t learn to get along, we will destroy ourselves. There is no other option.

In many ways, our country is still fighting the Civil War. There are deep wounds that will take a lot more time to heal. The popularity of movies such as Lincoln and Django Unchained reflect our conscious need to re-examine that troubled era, even if it’s heavily sanitized by Hollywood.

A far more difficult problem in defeating racism in America is simply widespread ignorance. Ignorance and intolerance go hand in hand, and let’s face it: Americans are some of THE DUMBEST people on the planet.

It doesn’t take very long to teach someone how to hate, but you can spend a lifetime trying to repair the damage undoing the web of lies that racism embodies. Overcoming the core values learned in childhood can be one of the most difficult tasks as an adult. Parents, siblings and other role models wield enormous influence over the moral development of young minds. There are still generations of Americans of every color who have grown up learning to hate their fellow citizens.

Disgraceful.