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What Others Have to Say About The Dream Alive Program...
King’s life, vision celebrated with march, speech 
Ohio University celebrated the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday with a silent march, service projects and a riveting keynote presentation by attorney Joe Rogers of Colorado. Monday’s observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday began with a gathering of students, faculty, Athens residents and others at Galbreath Chapel. Participants were asked to link arms with someone of another race for a silent march to Baker Center. Organizers asked marchers to reflect on King’s life and the progress that has made possible the inauguration of the country’s first African-American president. 
Kent Smith Jr., vice president for student affairs, introduced the keynote speaker, Rogers, a Colorado attorney, is the youngest person and the fourth African American in U.S. History elected lieutenant governor of a state. He presents his “Dream Alive” program around the country. “I’m here to share the life and legacy of a man called King,” Rogers said. Come back through time with me,” he said. “Why? As my mother used to tell me, “Baby, you gotta know where you came from.’ Why? Because those who don’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” He said the U.S. today is a “beautiful mosaic” of humanity where people, in Thomas Jefferson’s great words, are entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” “Despite the eternal truth of these words, you know as well as I do that those words didn’t apply to everyone (when they were written),” he said. Quickly, reviewing the major events of the Civil Rights era, Rogers strove to help the audience understand the turbulent times that led to King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. 
With great storytelling skill, he transported the audience to that hot summer day of Aug. 28, 1963, to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In one moment he was speaking in his own voice, then, without a pause, he was speaking in a near-perfect impression of King’s own voice. Matching King’s cadence, tone passion and inflection, Rogers then delivered the “I Have A Dream” speech, ending with those famous last words of the speech: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” Returning to his own voice, Rogers paused for a few moments, seemingly in the grip of great emotion. He said King’s speech has been called one of the five greatest speeches in the history of mankind. 
“Somehow he captured the essence of what it means to be an American,” Rogers said as he urged the audience to dream their own dreams and to take up King’s fight. Rogers said because of the King’s life and legacy and the struggle and sacrifice of thousands and thousands of unknown people, we have arrived at the point where an African American has been elected president.
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