Speak Out on 45th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

Marking the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, people in San José spoke out about the fading American dream. Reflecting on escalating frustrations that the country is moving in the wrong direction, the Speak Out was organized by people and community organizations increasingly concerned about what they can do together to reverse that trend and revive the American dream. Sensing that the Republicans and Democrats are unable to articulate real solutions to war, job losses, healthcare, foreclosures, and dwindling oil supplies, people are reviving the notion that the only real solutions must come not from the top down, but from the bottom up.

King spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in what is widely regarded as one of the most important speeches of not only the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, but of modern U.S. history.

With the American dream slipping farther out of reach for the vast majority of Americans, San José resident Bill Bryant organized the Speak Out on August 28, 2008 to revive the local struggle for “Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream, not George Bush’s nightmare.”

San José State University students Latu Tapaatoutai and Diana Victa spoke out about the fading American dream after Hurricane Katrina expelled hundreds of thousands of residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. While the U.S. government has squandered a trillion dollars on endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, vast tracts of New Orleans remain devastated and deserted three year later. Tapaatoutai and Victa are members of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, which seeks federal funding to fully rebuild the Gulf Coast and enable all displaced persons the opportunity to return to their original communities and jobs. It seeks to revive the American dream for the region by empowering the people themselves to rebuild and rehabilitate their devastated communities.

Adriana Garcia of Movimiento de Acción Inspirando Servicio (Movement for Action, Inspiring Service – MAÍZ) recited poetry of struggle and social justice. MAÍZ has been leading the struggle against ICE raids – surprise raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on undocumented immigrants that have broken up families, often turning children into orphans while their parents have disappeared into the secretive immigration detention system – the American “Gulag.”

Merriam Kathaleen, speaking for the Silicon Valley Impeachment Coalition (SVIC), blamed the fading American dream on President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who have misled the country into war, war profiteering, and war crimes. She called for full impeachment hearings to enable Congress to thoroughly investigate their wrongdoings.

Calvin Miaw, representing the labor union Unite Here!, described how local hotel service workers are struggling with irrational workloads and multiple jobs to put food on the table for their families. So far, they have been left out of the American dream. He called on people to support the hotel workers’ struggle for union recognition, livable wages, and humane workloads.

Katherine Bock of the Low-Income Self-Help Center echoed the stories of impoverished service workers and their families struggling to make ends meet amid the wealth generated by Silicon Valley high-tech companies. She called for a drastic change in national priorities in order for low-income people to share in the American dream.

Roz Dean, representing the Coalition for a Downtown Hospital, recalled how San José lost its sole downtown hospital because the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), which owned the former San José Medical Center, decided that it was no longer profitable to operate the facility. As the tenth largest city in the United States, Dean said that San José is now the only large city without a single hospital serving its growing downtown core.

Greg Miller of the California Nurses Association (CNA) argued that healthcare should be a universal right. With the U.S. being the only major industrialized country without a national healthcare system, an ever increasing percentage of Americans are losing access to medical care and falling out of the American dream. The only solution that guarantees universal healthcare to all and controls costs is a public single-payer healthcare system, Miller continued. He called upon people to support the California Legislature’s efforts to establish a single-payer healthcare system at the state level as a precursor to a national system.

The Speak Out was initiated by the San José Peace and Justice Center with the support of many of its community partners.