I Have A Dream
Rewritten for the Australian context
Based on a speech delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August
28, 1963 by Martin Luther King Jr. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket
Books, NY 1968
Almost a score of years ago, a great but nearly forgotten man stood in Canberra to bring in a landmark piece of legislation. His name was Senator Don Grimes and the legislation was the Disability Services Act of 1986. This momentous legislation came as a great beacon light of hope to thousands of Australian families who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak, a new direction, to end the long night of captivity and exclusion. But now almost two decades later, we must face the tragic fact that many are still
not free. Many do not belong. The life of those impaired in body or mind is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. Decades later, the person with an impairment lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. Decades later, the person with an impairment is still languishing in the corners of Australian society and finds himself an exile in his own land. When parliament passed the magnificent words and ideals of the Disability Services Act with broad support, they were signing a promissory note to which every Australian was to fall heir. They signed a second note in 1992 with the Disability Discrimination Act. However, many have found that when they tried to cash the cheque of an ordinary life, it was returned marked "insufficient funds". But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. Many will say that so much has progressed: "will you never be satisfied"? To them we say that this is no time to engage in the luxury of 'consolidation' or to take the tranquillising drug of gradualism. We can never be satisfied as long as people, heavy with the fatigue of rejection, cannot gain inclusion in the habitats and workplaces of the ordinary citizen and the hearts of fellow humans. We cannot be satisfied as long as the person with a disability's basic mobility is from a large institution to a smaller one. We can never be satisfied as long as a child cannot go to his local school as a fully included member, and while there is still a family that has given up hope of access to an ordinary life for their child. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Some of you have come fresh from daily rejection and denial. Many have come from areas where your quest for justice left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of unfeeling bureaucracy. But let us not distrust all people in power, for many of our sisters and brothers, as evidenced by their standing with us, have come to realise that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
Rewritten for the Australian context
Based on a speech delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August
28, 1963 by Martin Luther King Jr. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket
Books, NY 1968
Almost a score of years ago, a great but nearly forgotten man stood in Canberra to bring in a landmark piece of legislation. His name was Senator Don Grimes and the legislation was the Disability Services Act of 1986. This momentous legislation came as a great beacon light of hope to thousands of Australian families who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak, a new direction, to end the long night of captivity and exclusion. But now almost two decades later, we must face the tragic fact that many are still
not free. Many do not belong. The life of those impaired in body or mind is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. Decades later, the person with an impairment lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. Decades later, the person with an impairment is still languishing in the corners of Australian society and finds himself an exile in his own land. When parliament passed the magnificent words and ideals of the Disability Services Act with broad support, they were signing a promissory note to which every Australian was to fall heir. They signed a second note in 1992 with the Disability Discrimination Act. However, many have found that when they tried to cash the cheque of an ordinary life, it was returned marked "insufficient funds". But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. Many will say that so much has progressed: "will you never be satisfied"? To them we say that this is no time to engage in the luxury of 'consolidation' or to take the tranquillising drug of gradualism. We can never be satisfied as long as people, heavy with the fatigue of rejection, cannot gain inclusion in the habitats and workplaces of the ordinary citizen and the hearts of fellow humans. We cannot be satisfied as long as the person with a disability's basic mobility is from a large institution to a smaller one. We can never be satisfied as long as a child cannot go to his local school as a fully included member, and while there is still a family that has given up hope of access to an ordinary life for their child. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Some of you have come fresh from daily rejection and denial. Many have come from areas where your quest for justice left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of unfeeling bureaucracy. But let us not distrust all people in power, for many of our sisters and brothers, as evidenced by their standing with us, have come to realise that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
