My I Have A Dream Speech

At 5 am yesterday morning I woke up to a dozen news alerts telling me Donald Trump is the projected winner of the 2024 election. I couldn’t go back to sleep after that. The only thing I could do was cry, so I did that for a while. I was crying for myself, but also for my friends and classmates. 

I was a student at MSU when the shooting in February happened. I was in the building it happened earlier that day. I was lucky, I was in the right place at the right time. But I couldn’t get over that gun violence happened to my community, that people I know were directly affected. And I couldn’t get over thinking that it could be me next. It could be any of us. As a young person in this country, I do not feel safe. 

I have a dream that one day I can go to school or to a concert or to any public space and not fear for my safety. I dream I can go out and hear a loud noise and my mind not immediately assume it’s bullets tearing apart what was left of my future. I have a dream that every time I see a line of cop cars driving fast that I won’t have a breakdown thinking it’s another shooting. The succession of red and blue lights are forever painted in my mind; the first time I saw them I was sprinting into my apartment, my shaking hands fumbling for my keys to get in. The second time I saw them I had a panic attack and cried myself to sleep. I have a dream I won’t ever have to read about more shootings in the news, that more ambitions and visions aren’t senselessly stripped away from innocent little bodies. I have a dream we can all look at a shooter and see that more than just a mental illness brought them there to that awful day. I have a dream people will know not all people with a severe mental illness are violent. I dream this today!

After getting the election results, I also grieve for the kid in my class who is worried their partner will get deported. I grieve for the girl in my class who is afraid her tattoo which before had given her so much confidence in her identity as queer, would in the next four years fire her from her job. I grieve for my Black and brown friends and boyfriend who I worry will have to endear more racial microaggressions, more discrimination, more intersectional sexism, more hate by mere strangers who don’t even know them and haven’t even spoke with them, but hate them just because of the color of their skin. And these strangers, unaware of their implicit bias, won’t think anything of it, because our leader will have convinced them critical race theory isn’t true even though it is. I fear for them having to live in an even darker place. I grieve for people who are trans who fear for their lives and who have to bear the financial and psychological burden of traveling thousands of miles to another state just to get the gender-affirming care they deserve as a human. Same goes with women who have to go all over just to get control over their own bodies. I grieve for those who are disabled, those with learning disabilities, those currently living in poverty and that have a low socioeconomic status, those dependent on welfare, the homeless. There are so many people where hope seems so far away for after this election, but Kamala Harris said it best. She said that in the darkest of times, to be the bright stars. And so with that, I have more dreams that will act as my stars. 

I have a dream that one day I can walk into American Eagle and Victoria Secret and Forever 21 and all my go-to stores and see a size for every body type, not just extra smalls and mediums. I have a dream the label plus-size is thrown far away to a universe where no one in this country remembers it ever existed. I have a dream I can go to a fashion show and see women of all different body types but with no differentiation between them, no segregation between the ones who fit society’s ideal and the ones that don’t. I have a dream. 

I have a dream that someday my queer friends can walk down the street holding their girlfriends’ hands and not get stares, looks, and judgements that aren’t asked for. I have a dream they can kiss in public just like straight couples can. 

I have a dream of a world where a Black man can go somewhere without other people running the other direction or flinching in his presence. I have a dream a Black man can be seen as more than a stereotype, as non-violent, as kind, as a person. 

I have a dream that those who are disabled don't get a thousand people holding the door for them. I have a dream that people can respect their self-determination and see that their wheels are no less their way to get around than an able-bodied person's feet are.

I have a dream where playboy magazines and porn sites stop sexualizing women. I have a dream where women can sleep who whoever they want and however many people they want and not get slut shamed. I have a dream where they can wear whatever they want and I dream of a world where men are held responsible for sexual assault, not the clothes their victims were wearing. I have a dream where I can go outside in the dark alone and not worry for my safety as a woman. I have a dream. 

I have a dream where children aren’t kidnapped from their parents and sent into sex trafficking. I have a dream where movies like The Sound of Freedom are actually given a chance. 

I have a dream where Black women in medical settings are treated the same as any other patient. I have a dream doctors can do their research and know that it’s a ridiculous notion that Black women can somehow endear more pain than white women. I have a dream where the Black women mortality rate is no bigger than the white women mortality rate, where doctors can give them the same care. I have a dream. 

I have a dream that my future kids can go to school and not be bullied for the way they look or the way they act. I have a dream everyone can be kind to each other. 

I have a dream where people who are trans and non-binary don’t have to travel super far just to get the care they need. I have a dream that practitioners don’t have to fear getting jailed or fined just for giving that care to those individuals. I have a dream where everyone respects everyone’s pronouns they choose to use. I have a dream no one laughs at someone else’s pronouns. I have a dream. 

I have a dream a person who identifies as gay can walk into a church and be loved unconditionally, not conditionally. 

I have a dream where white feminists include women of color in their feminism. I have a dream where white females vote for their fellow females in elections and support them. I have a dream that instead of women hurting women, that we come together.

I have a dream that individualism and competition are overridden with teamwork. I have a dream that two artists can come together, and instead of worry about who is the better artist, that they can come together to create the most amazing pieces that make the world better not separately, but as one. 

I have a dream that women can get an abortion anywhere in any state, and that all women have a choice. I have a dream that doctors can’t be punished for giving women their human right. I have a dream women don’t die simply because of an unjust law. I have a dream. 

I have a dream that Indigenous Peoples get all of their land back, and that they are acknowledged. I have a dream that colonialism and oppression are dismantled forever. I have a dream that all of us good human beings are the ones to do it. I have a dream.

I have a dream that the homeless and those in deep poverty can get access to welfare in a much simpler process. I have a dream they won’t have to jump through all these exhausting hoops just to get help. I have a dream the work requirements on welfare lessen, and that we stop only giving support to the “deserving poor” and that we help everyone. 

I have a dream that those who are incarcerated are given a second chance, that they are able to get jobs and to get full access to SNAP benefits. I have a dream people who struggle with addictions are seen as more than their addiction, but as humans. I have a dream. 

I have a dream that one day my novels help people, and that they make a difference. 

I have a dream.

You can take a lot of things away from me, maybe even my freedom and others’ freedom, but you can’t take away my love and hope.