I Have a Dream…
My son Grady, Cambodian born American raised, the inspiration for both a book and a school, has a dream. He’s been studying Martin Luther King this month at his new International Baccalaureate school in Ft. Collins Colorado, where part of the first grade curriculum involves identifying inspiring “risk-takers.” Dr. King is his pick. His impersonation of “little black boys and girls holding hands with little white boys and girls” is quite dramatic, making skin color a hot topic of conversation around our house.
Grady loves to read and normally hates to write. But this assignment to write his own “I have a dream” speech flowed with uncommon ease. Here it is:
“I have a dream that…..
I could be a inventor and a astronot. I wold make a mountain top exploder. When I be a astronot I wold fix satlites and be a IB World Student and have a happy life.”
- Eric Ratanak Grady Grossman, age 7 , Nov. 14, 2007.
A happy life. A simple dream. Utterly unthinkable for the majority of Cambodia’s children, certainly for those born into the situation that Grady was, fatherless and hungry. For the rest of the story one must read Bones That Float and then you will know why this book is dedicated to the children of Cambodia.
Grady’s dream reminds me daily why I am doing this. Simply put, I believe that every child on this planet has the right to dream and to a happy life.
This is all of our responsibility.
