Your Mountain Times staff had a dream. Why your high school history teacher was in it (and dressed in a bear costume, at that), we honestly don’t know. Dreams can be funny like that. But they can also be revealing, upholding a belief that is commonly and unfortunately dismissed by the masses – that dreams can come true. Fortunately, Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that was passed on to future generations for the benefit of humanity. Your Mountain Times staffers don’t presume to liken ourselves to Dr. King, but here are some little dreams (bear costumes aside) we feel could make things better.

Mark Mitchell: All You Need is Love

“All you need is love, wah wah wah wah wah.”

My dream for humans in the future. What a question. I guess it all comes down to love for me. I have now entered the world of quoting the Beatles, but it’s true, all you need is love ... love ...love is all you need.

Now, a hot cup of java on a cold, winter day is nice. As is finding a $10 dollar bill in your pants before you wash them, but things like that are just icing on the cake. It’s the love you share with family, the love you share with pets, and most importantly, the love you share with yourself that really counts.

I say the love you share with yourself is the most important because, without this often elusive concept, it becomes more of a struggle to love others. Love the person you are, the strides you’ve made, the bad habits you’ve kicked, the good deeds you’ve performed, the loving inner core of your being that you are discovering and exhibiting more each day.

We all have good inside of us. Maybe you unearth more of this through church, maybe it’s through therapy, maybe it shows itself during Christmas or times of trouble, or maybe it’s through discovering your spiritual self. However it rears its head, for me, it’s a welcome visitor to greet.

When you greet this good, loving visitor that resides in each of us, you look for this visitor within others. And when that happens, this phenomenon of love grows a person at a time.

So, what is my hope for humans in the future? Take a guess.

Jeff Eason: My Fantastic Non-Plastic Dream

What do Jeff Eason and Captain Planet have in common? Apart from a passion for recycling, both gallavant around with an ethnically diverse group of environmentally minded young adults.

My dream is for Americans of all ages to begin eschewing the material aspects of life that have our landfills and garbage dumps becoming mountains of plastic that will take thousands of years to decompose. I took my recyclable materials to the recycling center in Boone a few days after Christmas and was disheartened to see the line of cars and pickup trucks filling the Dumpsters with holiday debris. Bright plastic bows that could have been reused next Christmas were being thrown into the trash along with tons of plastic packages that had a few days earlier contained toys and electronics.

The media gives a lot of attention to certain items, such as baby diapers, but nearly everything we buy at a grocery store or at Wal-Mart has excess and needless plastic attached to it. If everyone would try to be a little more conscientious with their purchases and recycle plastic bottles, bread wrappers and shopping bags (or better yet, get a permanent shopping bag), we can do a big favor to future generations.

Remember the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!

Frank Ruggiero: A World Without American Idol

High Point is home to the world’s largest chest of drawers, belonging to the man with the world’s largest pair of underwear.

Every time I visit friends in High Point, I am reminded that the Furniture Capital of the World, the childhood home of jazz legend John Coltrane, and the city with a really big chest of drawers is home to some glorified game show winner named after a Disney movie. Fantasia Something-or-another, who won the popular program “American Idol,” has her name plastered on special blue road signs posted at every major entrance to High Point, warning visitors and residents alike that High Point is her hometown.

Perhaps High Point isn’t the most fascinating city in the state – nothing like, say, Apex – but its claim to fame should stretch farther than some commercial-laden game show. Yet it seems millions of Americans are captivated by the program, which airs something like eight nights a week, eager to help manufacture a pop singer, who, God willing, will be forgotten in a year.

It’s not the concept of the game show that bothers me, but rather the abrasiveness of this particular program – the fact that contestants are required to make commercials for their sponsors, the strategically placed Coca-Cola cups in front of every judge, the constant, in-your-face media buzz surrounding every single episode, the utter lack of variety in music, and, worst of all, the notion that whoever wins is an American Idol. Perhaps more disturbing is the notion that those above-mentioned characteristics have come to represent the United States in the world’s eye – rampant consumerism, an unhealthy fascination with famous people, manufactured pop music and idolatry. But at least it’s American idolatry.

Melanie Davis: Better Drivers

If people used their turn signals, this wouldn’t happen.

On my way to the office today, I was brainstorming ideas for my dream for society. I am driving along, going over the obvious: world peace, an end to poverty, closing the sweatshops of the world, and then some idiot cuts me off and then slows down to 10 mph in a 35 mph zone.

The light bulb goes on. My dream for a better society consists of better drivers. Imagine, if you will, a world where turn signals are used and there is an end to tailgating. Never again would someone cut me off like they are such a big hurry to get somewhere and then slow down to a snail’s pace. I suppose it is easier to send a text message if you aren’t speeding.

In my dream world there would be no speeding, no driving while impaired, brake lights would always work and people would be simply more courteous to other motorists.

I believe a society of better drivers would likely eliminate a number of choice words from my vocabulary, and I am certain I am not the only person who would experience this effect.

I recently read a bumper sticker that echoed my sentiments exactly, “If you can’t operate the turn signals, how can you operate the rest of the car.”

Unfortunately, like world peace, this will never happen. I guess it is called a dream for a reason.