Martin Luther King, Jr

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

"Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."

"Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom to ring—when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state 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 Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

In Martin Luther King, Jr I see the power of dreams themselves.... and of giving a genuine voice to those dreams. For Obama, whose name literally means 'The Blessed One', is a sign that King's dream is becoming a reality.

“Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity. In a real sense, Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation."

And in his endorsement of Gandhi, I see how truth knows no bounds of country, time, or character. For Gandhi's dream continues on through people in different countries who still fight for basic human dignity, while India and Indians stay bent upon dividing the country through religious riots, castism, reservation, and what not.