Dream

In his famous 1963 address, given on the steps to the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King declared "I Have a Dream." That speech embodies what Martin Luther King stood for, and is a distillation of what King would want everyone to work for.

Today Barack Obama strives to carry on that dream. He is working to create an America similar to the one Martin Luther King saw in his dream: an America in which everyone has an opportunity to succeed, and people are judged not by the "color of their skin but by the content of their character." In Martin Luther King's time it would be inconceivable for a black man to be elected president, the very fact that in the election Barack Obama was judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin is a fulfillment of Martin Luther King's dream.

Optimism

Martin Luther King had uncompromising optimism. He always believed that there was a way to solve any problem through non-violent means. He closed his 'I Have a Dream' speech with the optimistic hope that in the end everyone "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!'"

Martin Luther King stood for optimism, and Barack Obama also stands for hope and change. At his campaign rallies he chanted with the crowd "Yes we can, Yes we can!" His campaign poster showed a picture of him, with the work 'hope' beneath. The optimism that Martin Luther King stood for lives on through Barack Obama.

Peace

Martin Luther King always stood for peace, and non-violent conflict resolution. King would extend that message to Obama if he was alive today. Obama earned the Nobel Peace Prize because of his work for improved international relationships, and negotiations. He is credited with changing international relationships and focusing on multilateral negotiations. For him "dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts." That is precisely what Martin Luther King would encourage.

Martin Luther King was opposed to the Vietnam war. In his 1967, 'Beyond Vietnam,' speech he said that the United States was trying to "occupy it as an American colony." King was also opposed to the Vietnam War because it diverted money that he believed should be spent on social welfare services. King would have similar opinions about the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and advise Obama to discontinue both wars.