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The Rev. Teddy Hill on Monday told those gathered at the annual MLK celebration in Opp that the United States is the greatest nation no matter its problems.

“No other place can you go with the freedoms and the privileges,” he said. “Enjoy the freedom you have today.”

Hill said he has been to other countries and they do not have the level of freedoms Americans have.

Hill said that it’s important that people realize that some dreams do come true.

“Thank God that all of our dreams don’t come true,” he said. “Sometimes, they aren’t righteous.”

Hill said that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., wanted everyone to love each other.

Hill applauded King’s non-violent approach to attaining civil rights.

He said activists such as H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael didn’t agree with King’s approach, that they were about any means necessary to help attain equality and justice for the black community.

The goal was to attain equal rights for all in voting, education, equal opportunity employment and housing.

Hill said he was a senior in high school when Dr. King was assassinated.

He was at a track meet away from home and he said Coach Waters woke he and another student up to tell them.

“At 18, I didn’t fully understand how it was affect us,” he said. “My mother was hurt. She played Dr. King’s speech, and she would buy pictures of him.”

Dream do come true, Hill said.

“Imagine if Dr. King was living,” he said. “What would he see? The fruits of his work. Many things he desired, are happening. He would see young black kids and white kids  playing together and holding hands. Dreams do come true.”

Hill said that just as in the Bible, Joseph told his family they would one-day bow to him.

After a struggle, his brothers bowed to him.

“People will hate you,” he said. “They will hate you when you are trying to do something God has challenged and called you to do.”

Hill quoted King, “I say to you today, my friends, and so, even though we face the difficulties to today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this 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.’”

Hill said that dreams do come true.

“Don’t stop dreaming. Don’t stop believing. Don’t stop hoping. Don’t stop praying. Don’t stop living for God. Don’t stop standing for righteousness,” he said. “We live in a great nation. It is not perfect, but we have all types of people here. We need to walk together, and with God, we can make a greater nation.”