Dream weaver

Georgetown University has an annual award they like to give. It's an award about freedom and stuff, and since it's being given today, we might even assume that it has something to do with Dr. King. From their website:

MLK Concert with Colin Powell, Aaron Neville & Tom Joyner...
This year, the Legacy of a Dream Award will be presented to Secretary and Mrs. Colin L. Powell

Well, not everyone thinks this is such a good idea. Here's a reader's letter to the editor of The Daily Hoya, Georgetown's paper of record:

Georgetown University is right to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. It is crucial for young people to learn from his example of nonviolent struggle and his dream of racial equality.

Precisely for this reason, presenting Georgetown’s “Legacy of a Dream” Award to Colin Powell is deeply offensive. While Secretary Powell's success as an African American man is laudable, his actions do not in any way embody Dr. King’s powerful legacy.

Dr. King spoke out against racial oppression and U.S. aggression around the world — and he never faltered from a path of nonviolence.

and this:

Powell used his position as secretary of state to deceive the world that Iraq posed an imminent threat and has supported and defended President Bush’s pre-emptive war on Iraq. Over 1,300 U.S. troops and at least 16,000 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of this pre-emptive war.

This war is not Martin Luther King's legacy. By presenting Secretary Powell with the “Legacy of the Dream” Award, Georgetown dishonors Martin Luther King’s dream and — more damagingly — misleads today's youth about what he stood for.

Melinda St. Louis (GPPI ’06)

All I have to add is nice job, Melinda.