“Was it not Dr. King who said, ‘I have a dream… when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God, Almighty, we’re free at last!’”
“Yes, Mr. Gray, you are correct, that was Dr. King. But as he so succinctly stated, it is all but a dream. Look around you: Consider the war on terrorism… Meditate on the thought that extremists consider our country “The Great Satan”… Ponder these statistics, Mr. Gray, that in May of 1991, the Crown Heights Riot ensued after a Jewish motorist ran over a black boy and left the scene. What about the 1992 L.A. Riots – among the worst riots in our nation’s history – triggered after the Rodney King incident? What about the white supremacists, the neo-Nazis, who stormed through the predominantly African-American side of town in Toledo? That was in 2005, Mr. Gray. And let us not forget present day, the month of August 2011, when a mob of black youth attacked white attendees at the Wisconsin State Fair. There is your dream, Mr. Gray, the pipedream that you toke from. I can reiterate many more accounts if you’d like. Shall I continue?”
A considerate pause lapsed, racing against each lap ticked away by the second hand. “No, that’s quite alright.”
“What you are suffering from, Mr. Gray, are simple delusions. The world, as a whole, will never change. People, as a whole, will never change. The tension that we see and experience is brought on by fear, misguided belief, egocentric philosophy and megalomania, and people – indeed, whole races – will continue to harbor those qualities, however poor those qualities may be, until the human race ceases to exist.”
“I see your point, Dr. Marshall. I can’t argue with historical facts. However, there is a small loophole, an error in your theory that all is a lost cause.”
With pen clinched between his index and middle finger, the doctor stroked his chin. “Do tell.”
“People. It’s all about the people you speak of. And, indeed, people’s hearts have been changed throughout the course of time – one person at a time. And that makes all the difference, if but one heart is changed for the better. Because change has happened, one heart at a time, people of all races are now able to sit together, learn together, dine and laugh and love together. True, some people will never change, but others have, and for that, I am grateful. A fire starts and spreads from a single spark, Dr. Marshall. It may take awhile for the flame to grow and kindle, but the fire eventually blazes. That spark has already been ignited, and I can see the growth in human hearts, slowly but surely. It’s unfortunate that people often come together when tragedy strikes, but when those extremists attacked 'The Great Satan' as you referred to earlier, I saw another people on that day of 9/11 – people of every tribe and tongue – who banded together and reached out to one another with love, care, and concern… We remembered that we all bleed the same color and cry the same tears. It’s ironic, Dr. Marshall, but in that moment of tragedy, and in the days that ensued, we were ‘free at last,’ as Dr. King said. We were holding hands, standing arm-in-arm, and it made absolutely no difference if one was black, white, rich or poor… for that shimmering moment in all of eternity, we were one.”
“I’ll give you that, Mr. Gray, for but a fleeting second in all of time, perhaps we were one. But you still fail to see the bigger picture: that a score of others – a great multitude and host of barbaric souls – will never allow the world to be as one. I’m afraid it’s a lost cause. You lose with your theory, Mr. Gray: I’m afraid the world is bigger than ‘one person at a time.’ Go back to your dreaming.”
“Then you are stranded, Dr. Marshall, lost in a world without hope. I am not the prisoner, you are. For it was another doctor, the Great Physician, who said: ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish.’”
From behind wire-rimmed spectacles, a hawk’s eye reverted to the clock. I knew what that meant.
“Time is up, Mr. Gray.” The doctor motioned for the guard who prompted me to rise from the minimalistic couch.
As I left the psychiatric study, escorted by the guard, I resigned to check my name at the door. After passing the threshold, I was simply client number 13,952, 841. I was promptly delivered back to my home, my address – my cell number matching my client number.
Kicking off my shoes, I slipped out of my clothes, that uniform marked by those black and white horizontal stripes, and made my way to bed. Before shutting my weary eyes to the world outside, I couldn’t help but notice the irony found on my shucked off clothing: Black stripes… White stripes… both were lying there peacefully… in harmony.
After rubbing my eyes and pondering the dreamscape I had only a moment ago escaped from, I fluffed my pillow, rolled over in bed and caressed my sleeping wife… thankful, grateful for the vision… the dream.