I have a dream: NEIU!

Imagine living in a world that is like looking in a mirror: everyone looks, thinks, dresses, believes and acts as you do.  Would this make you feel safe, secure, happy and unchallenged?  I tell you how it would make me feel - BORED - stifled - drowning in sameness!  The beauty and strength of our world lies in diversity. This is true all the way down to our campus community.  Just as in-breeding leads to unhealthy mutations, so does close-mindedness lead to putrid stagnation. My husband and I deliberately chose to raise our children in West Rogers Park, near Western and Devon in an area that our 18-year-old son refers to as the "Gandhi Ghetto."  This is an area of Chicago where we are part of a community that is statistically the most diverse in the world.  We decided this because we want to raise our children in a community that embraces all people, regardless of race, sexual orientation, origin, religion or creed, and reflects the diversity of our world.  As a result, we have neighbors from all over the world.  Senn High School, our local public high school has 82 different languages spoken there according to the last census.  Our neighbors are Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jewish.  These neighbors are openly homosexual, transgender, bisexual, metrosexual and hetrosexual.

I believe I need to live the values I wish to instill in my own children.  It is with great pride I celebrate having our first African American President.  It is with a humble heart I admit I will never forget Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech.  I still feel a tremendous tug at my heart as I realize the compassion and strength of that great moment, that vital speech, that humble man, to have had a dream that has come so far in forty-six years.  It is with great pride I claim Barack Obama, our first African American president, as our own.  Certainly his story and his recent Nobel Peace Prize are excellent role models for every mother to hold up to her children.

Unfortunately, Dr. King's dream has not come very far at all when tragedies such as motivated recent anti-hate crime legislation at the federal level exist.  His dream is not realized when young women are gang raped such as recently happened in a Northern California community.  His dream is not realized when a college professor is arrested in his own home because of racial profiling.  His dream is not realized when closed minds motivate venomous hate such as the Sept. 11 attacks.  Dr. King's dream is not realized when our own university is under siege by closed minds through hate-filled propaganda such as what was left under the Independent's door this fall.

It is with great pride that I call NEIU my alma mater; this university is a microcosm of the global community; the place we all call home.  Our world, our environment is under attack.  We have critical issues to resolve that transcend race, gender bias and religion.  We need to come together as a community, to make a real effort to help each other! 

The beauty of our campus is reflected in the diversity of our community in terms of race, sexual orientation, age and every way in which diversity can be construed.  It is time for us to come together and celebrate each other.  Let us revel, and learn from our differences.  Let us be grateful that we are as different as snowflakes, as unique individuals, with differences that are wonderful because they make us who we are. 

As Buckminster Fuller would say we are all "Crewmembers of Spaceship Earth".  Dr. William Ayers also hit the nail on the head while speaking here on campus on Thursday, Oct. 30, when he said, "We are all works in progress." The revolution of the 60's was only a beginning. Change starts right here, right now, with us, the regular people. Own your power.