The dreamer and the writer

1984 was perhaps just another year. But in my own weird logic, it makes me think about a paradox we are all living now, in 2003. \nIn 1984, the pop band U2 released what the vocalist Bono calls "the most successful pop song we've ever written." The song, called "Pride," was about the greatness and death of a man whose birthday we celebrated earlier this week. Another U2 member, Edge, said in 1998, "because of the situation in our country, non-violent struggle was such an inspiring concept."\nHowever, Monday, as millions of people mulled over Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ideals of non-violence, this nation kept on gearing up to strike against another nation. \n"1984" is also the name of a book by George Orwell. It's a gloomy book, forecasting a society with no liberties, where its citizens are watched over night and day, deprived of all privacy, doomed to a meaningless existence. Besides the privacy issue, there is another perverse characteristic of the Orwellian society that seems to be just as real today. Keeping the society in a constant state of warfare, where former allies turn into enemies and back to allies, depending on the economical conveniences of the moment. \nAs I read about the deployment of armies to Iraq last Monday, I looked up "Iraq" in my "Encyclopaedia Britannica," and found the following sentence on the Iraq-Iran conflict: "Iraq was backed by Saudi Arabia, the U.S., and the Soviet Union, Iran by Syria and Libya." However, that changed during the Gulf War. According to "Britannica," both wars started due to the ruthless Iraqi dictator's greed for oil pits. \nDr. King dreamt "that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed." Concurring with what Patricia Williams noted in her King day speech Monday, I think it is ironic to remember Dr. King's ideals during a time when his nation seems to be suppressing civil rights within its boundaries and is endorsing "pro-active" -- which is not the same as defensive -- violence towards other nations. \nThe United States was once the stalwart of civil rights, of freedom. But recently it seems to me the giant, in spite of its exemplary history of empowering its people, is slowly abandoning its role of defender of civil rights and the free world, and assuming a more Orwellian face.\nI believe that, in order to avoid the horror of becoming a society of cattle-like citizens, each individual has to follow Dr. King's greatest example: become an active member of their society. Pick a fight -- there are many to choose from. Fight for civil rights within your country; fight for civil rights across the borders. Fight for a more just world, a more just country. \nI believe that you, as well as I, would rather live in a world of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream than in the one of George Orwell's imagination.\nThe scariest of all the characteristics that Orwell conceived for the hypothetical society in "1984" is the lack of love. And only love for "thy neighbor" will motivate others to make things change for the better. When we all have made sure that our voices are heard, and that we are voicing an actual plea for justice, we will get closer to being "free at last."\nAs Bono does, I too believe that Dr. King spoke in the name of love. I just wish that we would all not only agree with him, but also act in the name of the same love.