Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted black people to be free. Free from persecution, ridicule and segregation. King saw an America that valued equality but did not show it.

This country began with the American dream. A dream for all people to be treated as equals. The notable exceptions were slavery and women's rights. But it must be understood that the people of America had one thing in common — they were persecuted. They were driven from their homes, their families and even their way of life.

Sure, our founding fathers owned slaves, and the men were held above the women, but they also came from a political environment more perversely unequal than our own. Equality was a tenet of our constitution and one of the reasons we broke away from England and its dominating royal class. This country has been striving for equality ever since.

King once said, "I have a dream." His dream was the American dream. Like most of the people in America, he dreamed for an opportunity to live, not in the way that others would have him live, but in his own way, or as close to it as humanly possible. It’s notable that the greatest heroes of American history are champions of that same dream.

This country was founded on the tired, the poor and huddled masses yearning to breathe free. These people, our ancestors, came to this land in order to escape another. They came to escape people that were trying to control them. They wanted to be free.

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day to remember a great man and what he did for this nation and for the future of our world. Perhaps his example should reflect on the workings of today. In a society where all people are equal, no one is held above another.

No man should tell another how to live his life. The sacrifice King had to make never would have been necessary if the people had the foresight to understand the results of their power. But what is the deeper meaning of his fight?

King was a black preacher who saw his people suppressed by the citizens of the South. Long after slavery ended in the South, the black men and women were still treated like slaves. Whose slaves were they? They were slaves to the society and government that surrounded them. White politicians with white power. The majority dictating to the minority. And of course the majority didn’t want that to change.

Today the same persecution exists; it is just focused somewhere else. Homosexuals, cigarette smokers, abortion doctors, drug users and violent video game manufacturers are some of the people hated today. But regardless of current social perception, I am confident that this country’s people will overcome these inequalities as well.

We must pay attention to the social dogmas of our time. Not only should we consider the rights that we have, but the rights that we are taking away from others.

The black men and women of the South were told where they could eat, where they could drink and with whom they could associate. Today it is that same mentality that kicked smokers out of restaurants and public buildings, restricted the rights of homosexual marriage and made drug users the villains of our society.

Is there a solution? Not an easy one. If people want to be free of the rule of others, they must not rely on them. Which means taking responsibility for your own life, realizing that you are in control of you and no one else is. Freedom means self-reliance, but that is a concept too many of us are afraid of.

We do not need more government rules and regulations to make these changes; we need fewer of them. Self-reliance is the direct result of education. To truly be free, we must be able to do the things that others have been doing for us. This means taking the time to learn and, most importantly, taking the time to teach those things to others.

Of course we can't learn everything, but then that's what friends are for. Make an effort to meet people who have skills different from your own. Learn from them and let them learn from you. If we meet people based on the skills they have, then achieving diversity and equality ceases to be a problem.

Persecutions do end. We see new ideas become more accepted, we see old taboos fall away. We know that things will end because they ended once.

They ended when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, and the country finally saw that he had the same dream as the rest of us.