Hello, bloggers!

I hope you had a great Martin Luther King, Jr., Day!

I want to tell you about my experience with the fabulous “I have a dream” art show, which I was honored to participate in.

It began when I got up at 3 o’clock in the morning in the Florida Keys, took an early flight to Fort Lauderdale, jumped on another plane, and got off at 10 o’clock in Chicago.

My granddaughter Rose and her boyfriend Dan picked me up and whisked me off to my studio, where I met with a contingent from Spain.  We talked art for the next three hours and had an incredible discussion.

I went back to my apartment and got changed.

My daughter Sheila called me and said, “There are about 200 young children who have been at the NBC Tower since early in the morning, viewing the artwork and listening to Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech as recited by one of the students.”

The people from the school wanted me to speak with the children, which is my favorite endeavor.  So I grabbed a taxi, went over, went up the elevator, gave my speech, did my song and dance, shook hands with all of them, and talked to them about the artwork.  It was a great experience and adventure, a good give-and-take.

I told these children that they are the most important people in the world.  They will make the world that they will create, not that old people like me create.  They are the leaders.

The students were very attentive.  They knew exactly what I was talking about.

Beforehand they had written essays.  Four students got up and read them to the whole group, which was very interesting and moving.

At that point we opened the doors, and the guests started arriving, probably about 300 people.

Stedman Graham was there and gave a wonderful speech to the young people.  There was a great program that followed, with six speakers.  There were many dignitaries from the city, the state, the country, and around the world.  Everyone was just delighted with the quality of the presenters and the spirit of the whole evening.

So many people came up to me and said how much they enjoyed looking at the artwork, listening to the testimonies, and interacting with each other.

There were visitors from Spain, France, Germany, and England, and we had communications from other countries as well.

I want to thank my daughter Sheila, who was the guiding light of this whole program.  From beginning to end, she and Stedman’s group, Athletes Against Drugs, put on a world-class endeavor, which was worthy of Dr. King’s great speech.

The thing that everyone realized at the end of the evening was that this speech had not only affected the United States, but the whole world.  It says something about the true power of the spoken word and the power of peace when articulated by people of good will.

There was such spirit there in that room.  When people left, they were just on fire!  But as always, the challenge is to take the message and run with it.  We have to work our asses off to get things done.

To all of you who came or supported us from afar, thank you for helping to make it such a great celebration.

Matt