Building A NEW DREAM for Our Cities

Even a city starts with a DREAM or Vision. If the city is deficient, then check out the DREAM or Vision which brought the city into existence. Or, you can DREAM and "en-vision" the city of your desire...it's in your hands.

Many of look to others for the solution, but it’s not about what Bush or other leaders can do, but what YOU--and WE: the rest of us--can do. The least that we can do is to envision the solution. Each one of us can do that--as little as it may seem. When we add it all up, it adds up. Try studying a city map--one with details of the parameter you want to change--find it and study it. That will help your envisioning, and inspire you to follow the next steps. The idea is to empower everyone, not to rely or depend on the Bushes' of our world.

Bring your friends together. Ask for a map of the city you are interested in. If you can, get a Satellite map showing amenities or installations or population, etc. You and your friends look at the map and rearrange it in such a way that you think is desirable; discuss it. Then, "imagine" it mentally--imagine what you want. Increase the discussion group, involve the community; invite city planners and leaders too. Keep refining the mental image, and let that move you into action

The Power of a DREAM

As are beginning another year, we can build new DREAMS for this year and once again be renewed by a vision that came true in the last Century:

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy articulated a powerful vision and described this DREAM in his special message to the Congress on the “Urgent National Needs” of the US. It was a vision that proves the power of our dreams put into action: “...I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."

On 24th July 1969, when Apollo 11 returned with its crew safely to Earth, following its earlier launch on 16th July 1969, and subsequent successful landing at the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon on July 20th 1969, that DREAM was fully manifested. Why not do the same thing kind of dreaming for our cities and nations and the world? Consider the clarity and precision of Kennedy’s DREAM: Who? This nation What? Commit to achieve a goal What goal? 1) land a man on the moon; 2) return him to earth; 3) return him safely; 4) before decade is out. Size of articulated DREAM in writing: 1 sentence; 31 words; 2 to 3 lines Size of Result: Immeasurable! The Lesson: A DREAM can, today, pluck from the tree of time desirable fruits which, being meant for a future season, are not even there at the moment. That is accomplishing the impossible. Yes, it can be done! Come join with me to dream a new dream for all people.

What is your vision for the city where you live?

What ideas do you have to help others see the new DREAM with you?

Oguchi Nkwocha, M.D.
Contributing Author, Global Dialogue Center