Sunday, January 18, 1998

Passing The Torch, Keeping The Dream

By Trent Edwards

I cannot be considered a qualified authority on such a powerful and dynamic person as Martin Luther King Jr. For during the height of his life, his trials and his tribulations, I, as a child, was only concerned about playing Army and sports, unaware that this man was fighting for my constitutional rights as a result of his dream.

Consider what the word "dream" meant to me at that time. I reflect on the naive eyes that did not really understand what the word meant. It was more than a fantasy of playing pro basketball or football. It was more than dreaming of becoming a doctor or lawyer. It was simply the desire to eat, play, work and educate oneself with others without disrespect, embarrassment or repeated attempts to beat down one's self-esteem, so that through hard work and dedication I could achieve anything in life I wanted to without fear of being a person classified as a minority.

This dream consisted of suffering people my age or younger cannot take credit for. We were not there. The sacrifices made then for our opportunities today should not go in vain.

There was another man who once said, "The torch has been passed on. We must pass that torch and that dream on, for that is our responsibility in life."

We must continue to educate ourselves, and others, especially our children. Let us take advantage of our experiences and knowledge and education in the classroom, workplace, church and even social clubs to promote positive self-esteem for ourselves and our children.

Like sponges, let us absorb the knowledge of the elderly -- for, believe it or not, they've already been where we're trying to go. Maybe now they know something they wished they knew then.

Chance to become

I mention education last because the only difference between a college-educated person and a noncollege-educated person is opportunity -- the chance to become.

The mechanic is just as intelligent as the accountant. One would not take his car to an accountant, and surely not his taxes to the mechanic. What I mean is a person is only as educated as his chosen craft, one craft being just as important as the next. Be proud of your craft.

It is the responsibility of each individual to pass on the torch and to be part of the dream. The dream is not isolated from one race or culture. The dream involves everyone.

There are no such things as problems, just solutions. The person who complains without involvement has no room to criticize. "Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan." We must concentrate our efforts on changing the traditions of the past and winning together.

Have you ever noticed that children can fight one another one minute and be best friends the next? That is, until the parents get involved. And we say, Don't play or talk with them anymore. What kind of torch, what kind of dream are we passing on, I wonder?

Stand up and be proud to be an American. Be proud to be a black American. Be proud of your origin and ancestry. For pride builds confidence and confidence breeds success.

Prejudice and racism could only have survived and flourished over the years by what was taught in the home. For children are born not knowing what the words color and race mean. Color and race are taught.

What we as parents teach our children today will surely be taught to our grandchildren tomorrow. We need to teach our children that all colors and races are good and created equally by God.

Education promotes opportunities for power and wealth -- not perceptions presented by others. We need to avoid the pitfalls of life that have been created to subdue us. Drugs were made to make money and to keep one's mind disillusioned, causing death, destruction and eventually genocide. Alcohol was intended to be enjoyed in moderation but is being used to send the mind into a state of subconscious control and lack of rational thought.

The only thing drugs and alcohol will lead us to is crime. And crime will only lead us to jail or death. For the dream requires a higher number of men and women out of jail vs. in jail. The dream expects us to be responsible in our lives as well as the lives of our families and friends. What kind of torch or what kind of dream are we passing on?

Restoring the family

We need to restore the kind of family values that have brought us through the years -- placing religion first, for it is truly the cornerstone of the black family. We need to be concerned not only with ourselves but also with the lives of our children. Concern about their school, concern at home and concern about their friends. We need to de-emphasize their thoughts that clothes, cars or even shoes are the major gauges of success. Let's return -- within reason -- to the days of discipline, for it did not hurt most of us.

We as a new breed of Americans have a tough road ahead of us. It was not intended to be easy, for we are trying to improve on a world that was developed by educated men who were aggressive but yet concerned about our future.

Now we are the educated and aggressive. How concerned are we?

We must meet and communicate our common goals. Learn that we all really want the same things in life -- jobs, adequate housing, educational opportunities, health programs and security. We all want the same things for our children.

We must unite and attack our common fears and stereotypes. We are all taught in each of our homes that the salad and dinner fork go in the same place. We must abandon our traditions of distrust and realize that lack of communication, lack of understanding, lack of education all bring about distrust.

Why would you trust a man that you don't know or understand? It should be noted that if you took 100 Americans of varied racial backgrounds and flew them to any other country in the world, all 100 of them would be considered Americans. And yet in America the same 100 people would be called Italian or Asian, black or white or Hispanics or the worse names of slang -- but American would be the last. What kind of torch, what kind of dream, are we passing on?

We can spend millions of dollars trying to insure the lives and futures of so many others. Why can't we spend just a little time on a dream ensuring the lives and futures of our young?

This column is just one man's understanding of another man's dream. That dream is still alive and thriving. It is still deeply seated in our minds and hearts. It still carries the power 38 years later. It still drives us all.

Are you ready to pass the torch? To pass the dream on to the next generation of young Americans?

Let's go back and take a look at the reflections of a man's dream.

Trent Edwards is second vice president of the Abilene Black Chamber of Commerce and a former spokesman for the local chapter of the NAACP.