In Memoriam of Dr. King

In memoriam of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday we should be conscious to the fact that this immortal figure recited speeches that cannot be neglected, not by African-Americans, and not by minorities throughout the world where they are subjected to abuses and left to feel inferior to another race, class, cast, etnhie, etc. In memoriam of King’s speech on August 28, 1963, we honor him today on his Birthday, where Albanians remember his words in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, and with all respect take his undying speech and interpret it as Our struggle that continues to resonate through the pillars of self-determination, liberty, autonomy, choice, free will, sovereignty, INDEPENDENCE … for all Albanians throughout the Balkan peninsula.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come to Kosova out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells in Spuz. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of Slavic brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Come back to Albania, come back to Tetova, come back to Presheva, come back to Malesia, come back to Chameria, come back to the slums and ghettos of your homeland villages, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my Albanians, that even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Albanian dream.

I have a dream that one day a “Greater Nation” 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 equal.

I have a dream that one day on the black mountains of Plav & Gusine the sons of Scanderbeg and the sons of Jashari will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood and remember the blood spilled in honor of country!

I have a dream that one day even the region of Malesia, a district sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom, justice, and self-determination.

I have a dream that our little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the choice of religion but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Chameria, with its vicious racists, with the Greeks having their lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Chameria little Cham boys and Cham girls will be able to join hands with little Kosovar boys and Kosovar girls as sisters and brothers with no borders separating them.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley of ancient Illyria shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain 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 Albanians shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the Tirana with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our Greater Nation 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.

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 country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Albanian’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" And if Albania is to be a Great Nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of Tuz.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of Gjakova.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Shkodra.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped mountains of Gusine.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of Vlora.

But not only that.

Let freedom ring from the raging seas of Ulqin.

Let freedom ring from valleys of Presheve.

Let freedom ring from every mountain top of Ethnic Albania, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every village and every municipality, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's Albanians, Malesor, Kosovar, Shkoltare and Katunar, Muslims and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Illyrian spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."