Rev. Theopulas J. Robinson, Chair
Rev. J.D. Johnson
Rev. Ronald Fortune
Rev. Clarence Williams
Rev. Edward Green
Rev. James T. Golden

Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968), Speech at Civil Rights March on Washington, August 28, 1963

Bishop Adams, Supervisor Adams, members of this 62nd Session of the Tampa Florida Annual Conference. We believed in the dream of Dr. King then, and we continue to believe in the dream now. There are those however, who would have us to believe that the dream is dead or who would try to kill whatever is left of it.

For so many disenfranchised Americans, the poor, those of minority or affected class status, the illiterate and so many others who have fallen through the cracks. It seems as if there are no dreams, or at least no dreams for them. "Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams." Genesis 37:20.

One of the great dreams of the Civil Rights Movement was achieving the right to vote. This dream has been eroded by the recent fiascos occurring in first the Presidential election of 2000. Which resulted in the first Presidential Election where the President was selected and not elected. Now in the State Primary election 2002 here we go again in almost the same troubled counties. It is an absurdity that such an occurrence could happen again. The worst part of this is the Governor’s and Secretary of State’s lack of leadership in dealing with the Supervisors’ of Elections in the offending counties. One would be inclined to think that this would have been a priority of the Governor’s, to ensure that fairness prevails in our election process.

Another dream is that all children would be able to live in loving, supportive homes with parents that care and nurture them. The overwhelming failure of the Department of Children and Families in the areas of child protection and accountability has resulted in disaster for the children of Florida. Children disappearing, dying needlessly, caseworkers lying and falsifying records. Our children are falling through the cracks of the adoption and foster care system which shows the need for complete revamping of the entire department. The appointment of a bigoted, sexist male with a myopic view of life is a poor solution to addressing the problems of D.C.F. Spending money to properly train and staff the department with competent, knowledgeable, persons; and reducing the caseloads of personnel is the way to begin an overhaul of the department.

Also, Governor Bush would do well to be careful of the callous and despicable remarks he finds amusing to make regarding foster parents. This is not a trivial matter, and his locker room conversation among his cronies fail not appreciated.

We dream of the graduation of our young men and women from high school and their desire to go on to college. This has been damaged by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT as it is affectionately called. This test which has been demonstrated to be culturally biased and which the governor was reported to fail should not be the primary means of assessing a child’s performance. Furthermore, because schools are graded with the FCAT being a primary factor in the grading process, it has become a high stakes game. Teachers are teaching to the test at the expense of other learning. FCAT scores for Florida’s school children are reported to be rising but, guess what, SAT and ACT scores are falling.

If we are to address the issue of student performance let us look at the following major issues: How can we expect students to come to school and concentrate on learning when they go home to houses with no parents, or go to bed at night on empty stomachs, or hear the sounds of gunfire right outside their front doors, or pass the drug dealers on their corners, or watch their parents being sentenced for their own crimes? The love for learning, discipline and developing a work ethic begins in the home. It begins even before the child starts school and must be reinforced everyday over and over until it become a part of the child’s psyche and value system. We must insist that our school adopt a policy of classroom limits, how can a teacher effectively teach with 40 screaming children in one small classroom with no help. Guidance counselors should be allowed to do the job for which they were hired, not other duties that take them away from providing much need advice and listening ears to our students. It will take money to provide the changes needed for our schools to become true centers of academic preparation ready to meet the needs of preparing our children to be ready for the challenges of this changing world. We can pay for it now in prevention or we can pay for it later building more prisons, staffing more law enforcement officers for those who couldn’t make it.

We live in a changing economy and we need to prepare ourselves for our financial futures. African American people must stop living as reactive people and become proactive. We must stop living to spend and spend to live. Becoming financially successful takes planning and preparation. Statistics have shown that more than sixty percent of persons will be unable to live without help or some kind of income after retirement. Most people live a life of continued debt, and will work for years to pay off their credit. We need to learn about investments and saving and learn to stop living paycheck to paycheck or government handout to handout. Planning

now, sacrificing now, saving and investing now will payoff in a big way later. Let us remember when we dreamed of opening and running our own businesses and companies, remember our dreams of being financially independent and solvent, remember our dreams of providing for our families, owning homes, and property. A dream of better lives for our children and grandchildren.

We are now preparing for the November elections. It is imperative that we go to the polls in great numbers to send a message of solidarity for our families and communities. We must exercise the right to vote, that dream for which so many have risked their lives. There is a need to send a strong message, a message both to Tallahassee and to Washington, D.C. Tell the Bush brothers that our dreams have not been broken nor have they been lost; tell them that not only are our dreams still strong within our hearts, minds and the depths of our souls, but that we have new dreams, dreams that go beyond the hilltops of New Hampshire, and the mighty mountains of New York or the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Dreams that go further than the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado, the curvaceous peaks of California, and Stone Mountain of Georgia! Dreams that go higher than Lookout Mountain of Tennessee, every hill and molehill of Mississippi and every mountainside. Our dreams, the dreams of a past generation, and the generations to come, will rise to the heights of the heavens even to the throne of God who is the Dream maker.

"Climb every mountain, forge every stream, follow every highway, till you find your dream. A dream that will need all the love you can give, every day of your life, for as long as you live. Climb every mountain, search high and low, follow every rainbow, Till you find your dream." Rogers and Hammerstein.