Will President Barack Obama be King’s “dream?”

What would Martin Luther King say today with a headline like this: AP Tally: Obama effectively clinches nomination.

More than 40 years ago, King announced to the world that he had a dream:

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Many in this nation are overjoyed that an African-American man has the best chance ever to be the next president of the United States. White people voted for Barack Obama, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, possibly a representative from every nation on this earth voted for him.

Obama’s wife said this: “for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback” several months ago. I, like her, am also proud that my country is trying to shed 400 years of oppression through slavery, racism and segregation. Perhaps America will continue this momentous occassion and propel Obama to the White House and make Dr. King’s declaratory statement that we, America, will be “free at last.”