Martin Luther King was assassinated at the young age of thirty-nine, not much older than I am today. In his famous “I have a dream” speech in 1963, he talks about how the check of freedom issued to all citizens, including African Americans, has come back because of “insufficient funds”. That is one step ahead of where we Chinese would have been in 1963, because it was neigh impossible to become a citizen then. If I were a contemporary of MLK, I would be waiting two more years in Hong Kong or some other place in the British West Indies for the Immigration Act of 1965, when the quota of 105 Chinese a year was finally lifted. Chances are 1,000 to 1 for being a barrister/solicitor, 10 to 1 a scientist or a teacher, and even money on shopkeeper or restaurant cook. How far the journey has been, such a dream, and how fortunate we are to have it!
To be MLK
