"I want to be a builder. I want to build houses and buildings for the homeless," said Aman Efrem, a third-grade student from Hearst Elementary in Washington D.C.

For another student, Azalea Westray, the dream is "that all people stop the violence" and "all people love and respect one another."

The two were among various answers to the Washington Post's blank filling to "My dream is..." when Americans observed the Martin Luther King's Day Monday.

The black civil rights leader and Nobel Prize winner, famous for his "I have a dream" speech worldwide, was assassinated on April 4, 1964 at only 39. However, he left his "dream legacy" to generations of Americans, especially black people who are still striving for better opportunities in education, employment and political status.

"Always remember, you can make a difference and you can help fulfill the dream of Martin Luther King Jr.," Martin Luther King said to young people through the newspaper in honor of his father's day.

He also encouraged young people to make his father's beliefs "about nonviolence, justice and love for all people" part of their life and "to get involved in helping other people have a better life and doing your parts in making a better world."

His message came at the third Monday in January, a day to honor the birthday of the slain leader, who would have been 79 on January 15 if still alive.

During the visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in the capital early Monday, President George W. Bush called on the nation to follow his legacy by showing compassion to those in need, which is "fitting that we honor his service and his courage and his vision."

From Atlanta to Chicago, memorial services, forums and rallies are held nationwide Monday to honor the advocate of peaceful resistance and equality for people of all races.

The Wall Street in New York, in particular, kicked off the celebration of the Martin Luther King's Day on Friday in an unusual way with the leader of American's most prominent civil rights group, also chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality Roy Innis ringing the opening bell in the morning at the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Memory of Martin Luther King's unfulfilled dream adds fuel to the speculation on the first African American presidential hopeful, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, as the 2008 presidential primary will move to South Carolina on Jan. 26, which homes a large black population.

Obama and two other Democratic presidential candidates, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and former North Caroline John Edwards, Monday turned the memorial events into their campaign stages to woo the black who accounts for a significant percentage of the total Democratic voters in the state.

All of the three addressed outdoors in the cold at an annual rally sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

At the rally, Obama echoed Martin Luther King's "dream" and called for the end of divisions that he said has tainted the presidential contest.

"Every day our politics fuels and exploits divisions across races and region, across gender and party," he said. "It's played out on television, it's sensationalized in the media, and it's crept into the presidential campaign in a way that serves to obscure the issues."

Clinton recalled listening to King's speech in her childhood and reminded voters of his vision of racial and economic equality.

"The dream is nowhere fulfilled," she said. "Now we are called to rise up, speak up and finally get it done."

(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2008)