"When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every tenement 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 are free at last.'"

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., addressed the nation as a civil rights leader when he proclaimed this stirring reaffirmation of the American Dream on that hot summer day in 1963. With the benefit of hindsight, however, we know that Dr. King also spoke as a prophet of freedom for all Americans.

The multitude attending the Washington March for Jobs and Freedom, and millions of other Americans who witnessed the event through our radios and televisions, instinctively appreciated both Dr. King's premise and his conclusion. His words not only challenged the legally-sanctioned denial of African American humanity, they also affirmed the difficult and uncertain road to opportunity traveled by most Americans of every race and creed.

For this nation to survive and prevail, Dr. King argued, we must learn to live as one family. Whether our ancestors came to these shores on the Mayflower or in the hold of a slaver, he implied, we all live in the same community now.

When Dr. King declared "I still have a dream...deeply rooted in the American dream," he was demanding redress for the inequities of legal and political segregation. His was also a social vision, however, a prophesy of universal opportunity which resonated throughout the world.

The duality of King's political and moral legacy becomes apparent each January. We celebrate his birthday and ask ourselves whether his transforming dream for America remains an achievable goal for a nation grown tired of urban problems and affirmative solutions.

The abolition of legally sanctioned segregation was an historic accomplishment, guaranteeing to all Americans their measure of legal and political equality. Yet, despite scattered progress along our shared economic journey, this country has not become the land of Dr. King's more fundamental vision. For too many Americans, his hope-filled dream of opportunity for all remains an unrealized promise.

The dream of a nation which lives up to its promises remains unvanquished. It cannot be silenced as long as people of conscience walk and breathe. If Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were alive today, Georgia Congressman John Lewis has observed, "...he would be in the forefront of reminding the government that its first concern should be the basic needs of its citizens - not just black Americans but all Americans - for food, shelter, health care, education, jobs, livable incomes and the opportunity to realize their full potential as individual people."

I feel honored to know and work with Congressman Lewis, a man who is as much a freedom rider today as he was in the days of his youth. Although we are determined to continue Dr. King's work in the Congress, we realize, as Dr. King recognized, that an America which lives up to his vision of "beloved community" cannot be created in Washington alone.

"Go back to Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana," Dr. King exhorted the Washington gathering in 1963. "Go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed."

Today, in Baltimore and similar metropolitan regions throughout the country, the children of Dr. King's dream are our children; and the "situation" which can and must be changed is our work to perform.

The America of today was built on the backs of working Americans. Our children, however, will succeed or fail together as thinking Americans competing in a world-wide economy; and when we contemplate their future in Dr. King’s dream of universal opportunity, we confront a harsh reality.

Too many of our children are failing to learn the knowledge, skills and values which will assure their rightful place in the American future. Appalling test scores, violence and drug use may be more apparent in our center cities, but these threats to our future are not limited to the inner city. Suburban children, black and white alike, also are failing to appreciate and develop the tools of their freedom.

In Clairvoyance, a visionary blueprint edited by Baltimoreans Charles G. Tildon, Jr., and John H. Morris, Jr., some of Baltimore's most gifted thinkers discuss the relationship between our schools and the community in which we live. We must become a "community of learning," they conclude, if we are to become a society in which all people have the opportunity to succeed.

The realization of Dr. King's dream is a challenge which all of us - parents and children, teachers and neighbors - must learn to meet together. We can master this test, but if we are to keep the flame of Dr. King's dream burning, we must first recreate ourselves as a community of learning. We must support the movement toward rebuilding our children’s schools, and we must teach and learn from our children in the conduct of our daily lives.

Today, education is at the forefront of a march for human rights which everyone can join. Supporting the creation of our "community of learning" is my priority in the Congress and - on this seventieth anniversary of Dr. King’s birth - my work here in Baltimore. Along with many others who share my commitment to Dr. King’s "beloved community," we will honor his legacy by returning to the campaign trail to support educational opportunity and hope.