New York Dreamer

Dedicated to all dot-com entrepreneurs…

—-Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.

“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our online world.

…edited for time-pressured entrepreneurs…

Let us not wallow in the valley of Silicon, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the virtual dream.

I have a dream that one day this community 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 online.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Germany, the sons of former free downloaders and the sons of former content owners will be able to sit down together at the virtual table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of slow broadband, sweltering with the heat of off-line communities, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and virtual world.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a world where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Africa, with its vicious non-connectivity, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Africa little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as virtual sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every time-pressure and competition shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the Internet with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of silicon a bit of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the clicking discords of our virtual world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day – this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My virtual world ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,

From every valleyside, let freedom click!

And if Online is to be a great world, this must become true.

And so let freedom click from the prodigious valleytops of California.

Let freedom click from the mighty alleys of New York.

Let freedom click from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.

Let freedom click from the snow-capped Rockies of the Alps.

Let freedom click from the curvaceous slopes of Columbia.

But not only that:

Let freedom click from stone valley of Georgia.

Let freedom click from Lookout Valley of Tennessee.

Let freedom click from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every Valleyside, let freedom click.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom click, when we let it click from every village and every hamlet, from every site and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Netscape’s spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”