Remember a Dream...

When I picked my children up from school on Friday,

they were all a buzz about the discussions they had in class

about Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Mom, black people couldn't even go into restaurants

 with white people, that is so weird!"

"Mom, black people couldn't even go into the same bathroom

as white people, can you believe it?"

"Mom, black kids couldn't go to the same school as white kids, that is so crazy!"

Then my little six year old Smith, started to relay the story he learned in class about Ruby Bridges.

"Mom, there was this little girl named Ruby

 and she gotted to go to the white people school.

 But guess what? 

Police had to walk with her 

and people were yelling mean stuff to her

 and calling her bad words

 and throwing lotta stuff at her.

 And Mom, guess what? 

A lady spit on her.

 And that is so gross and rude."

As I listened to my sweet baby telling me this story 

my eyes welled up and my heart stung.

I could see this tiny little girl

surrounded by federal marshals

walking through a human tunnel of hatred

into a school where she wasn't truly welcomed

into a classroom filled with empty desks

because by law she could be there now

but no one else wanted to be there now.

But she was brave.

My heart stung again 

as I envisioned my little ones 

taking this same walk.

People having so much hate in their hearts for my own children.

Children that they loathed...

because of their skin color. 

Children that they wouldn't allow their own to play with...

because of their skin color.

Children that they didn't know were 

"kind and smart and important..."

because of their skin color.

But my children would be brave.

Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream.

Teach your children 

about his dream, 

embrace his dream,

remember his dream...