WHERE IS "THE DREAM"? by William Fredrick Cooper
Written July 20, 2008

Reclaiming the Dream was on CNN tonight. AIDS and Our Sisters, Black Leadership and its course a moral leader named Martin spoke of years ago were dissected through discussion. But a question wouldn't escape me, one I should be able to answer easily:

WHERE IS THE DREAM?

Is it a living in a place where pigmentation is irrelevant? Is it on an island of prosperity where colors and cultures hold hands, cashing the check Dr. King articulated almost a half century ago? On this date, is the check still bouncing because of insufficient funds? Why does race still matter in the land of the free? In spite of the progress made, do we possess the security of racial justice? In spite of Obama's historic run, are we truly living on equal ground?

WHERE IS THE DREAM?

Is it standing alone on top of a mountain, sitting alongside a man at the threshold of taking residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

WHERE IS THE DREAM, and the people searching for it? Are we collectively rowing against the stream of righteousness? Are we still being seated for negative nourishment at unsavory venues, partaking of plates of bitterness and hate? Or are we living in confusion, desperately grasping for the true definition of the vision?

WHERE IS THE DREAM?

Is it being reclaimed after the restoration of a collective aim? Escaping certain uncertainties, have we found a way to bring understanding to it all? From sea to shining sea, are we adamant in our ambition to search for solutions?

OH WHERE, OH WHERE HAS WHAT MARTIN PREACHED GONE... OH WHERE, OH WHERE CAN IT BE?

Has it been replaced by a reality where crime runs rampant? Why are we paying taxes to fight wars that make no sense when foreclosure is at every corner? Why are the high gas rates when innocent kids are dying overseas for oil acquired through their bloodshed? Why aren't affluent African-Americans reaching back as mentors to communities crying for help? They spoke of the six billion dollar black empire tonight. Where is the progress? What's up in the wonderful world of Black Enterprise? Are we walking the walk of the vision and its golden rule of reaching, then teaching each one? Are we giving love to one another? Or will the dream remained mired in mystery, lost in a riddle, buried inside of an unknown enigmatic zone sans sight, social scenery and sound?

WHERE IS THE DREAM?

Is it enslaved in mediocrity in all we do? Whatever happened to the intellectualization of Black Literature, joyous days when Langston Hughes, Ann Petry, James Baldwin and Richard Wright wrote with love, compassion and the motivation to articulate messages through powerful prose? Amiri Baraka, Quincy Troupe and Herb Boyd, when referencing James Baldwin today, spoke of artistic activism being missing within the written word at the Harlem Book Fair. Did the dream sacrifice the life of substance for monetary gain? Does the dream lay blame on the publishers for encouraging works that sell instead of books that matter? Or is it the writer's fault, for focusing on the business end of deadlines and what’s popular as opposed to the message of the story? Is it the readers' fault for wanting to escape a horrid everyday reality with entertainment? Or is it the parents for forgetting to make Alex Haley and the Autobiography of Malcolm X required reading for our youth? Does the dream help Black Writers find the creative balance between business and art and raise that bar? Or in the alternative, is the dream like the benefits and detriments of a contract, in that it stays mired in a complacent land? Is the sole purpose of the dream to get people to read? Or is it about what's being read?

Surely, they'll come a time when the dream will send bells ringing. Making a triumphant return, the dream and its agenda will revisit a place where danger awaits, challenging our core to resume intellectual progress. Decoding, deciphering and re-directing the vision while ending our present nightmare, solutions and answers will come to us all.

Or will they?

(William Fredrick Cooper is the author of the Essence Bestselling novel, THERE'S ALWAYS A REASON.)