I have a dream...

Today is Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. I thought about staying home, the I thought about going to work, then I started to think about staying home again. We always used to get it off when I was in school. I don't have today off. But I might take it off anyways.

I think it's important to honor the memory of the man who started the civil rights movement in this country. Without him and the fight for racial equality, it is likely my parents would have never come here. It is likely I would be a doctor in Taiwan, rather than the techhead I am.

Being in the U.S., there's a lot that we take for granted. Our ideas of personal freedom and free speech, equality between genders and different ethnic groups. The land of opportunity, and the ability to choose how to live is something that I think gets lost in the everyday bustle of our lives.

Read the entry on I have a dream at Wikipedia, or the text of his speech, and reflect that in the last 40 years, so much has changed, and yet so much still has to be done.

Update: I decided on going to work today. The weather is kind of overcast, so I'd rather save my vacation day for another more cheerful day.