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19 Jan 09 - 11:24 AM (#2543117) Subject: BS: Martin Luther King Jr. Day From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Just found this on another site: Remember Segregation |
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19 Jan 09 - 11:34 AM (#2543124) Subject: RE: BS: Martin Luther King Jr. Day From: katlaughing That's brilliant, Lizzie, thank you. |
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19 Jan 09 - 01:34 PM (#2543237) Subject: RE: BS: Martin Luther King Jr. Day From: Ebbie There are a number of us here who remember those days. When my family moved to Virginia from Oregon in 1949 I was 13 and was taken aback by the fountains and entrances and walled off areas set aside for the 'colored'. At that time and in that place, African Americans literally stepped off the sidewalk to let the White person by. However, I had not been brought up in a politically and morally educated way and I let it be. When my two older sisters, then aged 22 and 25, joined us in Virginia they were outraged. They did a lot of talking - ranting, really - the problem was that the powers-that-be considered their kind of talk unseemly and felt that only 'poor white trash' talked that way. Martin Luther King, Jr. awakened a lot of people. I shudder to think where we might be today hadn't it been for him. He frightened and alienated a great many people- but if he hadn't espoused and adhered to a non-violent approach this country would in all likelihood have torn to pieces. |
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19 Jan 09 - 07:08 PM (#2543523) Subject: RE: BS: Martin Luther King Jr. Day From: Janie Normally the major news sites have major pieces on MLK, both during the run-up to the holiday and on this day. Obama's inauguration is overshadowing that. Perhaps it should. I don't really know. What I do know is that Dr. King became an advocate for social justice, period. It cost him the support of many in the civil rights movement. In terms of civil rights for African-Americans, he was called forth and was a great voice and leader of the times. In terms of understanding the many, many implications of social justice across the fabric of society, he was a prophet, and well ahead of his time. He is still ahead of his time in that respect. It goes without saying that change in large societies (and really, what is now a society of the world, though not very cohesive,) is incremental and slow. (and cyclical.) The election of Barack Obama reflects one legacy of Dr. King and the many others who came before or after, or walked with him in one way or another. Let us hope that this new president, who is quite the moderate but who seems to understand the social change process, is able, with the help of thoughtful citizens and other leaders, to move us an inch or two further down the path of social justice. I heard an interesting discussion on The State of Things, a locally produced and North Carolina focused public radio show. One of the participants was a Dr. King scholar. He talked about a paper Dr. King wrote while in seminary at about age 19 regarding the prophet Jeremiah, that intimated Dr. King's awareness that he was compelled to follow a calling. It was not necessarily the life he would have chosen for himself sans the calling. Jeremiah, like all prophets, was a man ahead of his time. In his paper, Dr. King reflected that society destroys such men. At that young age, I'm sure Dr. King had no idea of where he was headed or that he would be physically destroyed by elements of the society he was called to confront and change. By the time he began to publicly address issues of poverty, unfair labor practices and the economics and class issues of war, however, he did understand that he was risking losing much of his power-base for change. Ultimately, he decided it was the right thing to do, and what he was called to do. The iconic Dr. Martin Luther King celebrated by the holdiay and the assorted marches, etc. that occur is akin to the George Washington who cut down the cherry tree. We always make our heroes larger than life, and simplier than life. |
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19 Jan 09 - 07:29 PM (#2543545) Subject: RE: BS: Martin Luther King Jr. Day From: Amos SOme of us have done the same thing with Barack Obama. He is remarkable in his accomplishments of the last two years, and in his vision for solutions to social flaws and toxins. But, bright and aware, articulate and collected, he is still a man and will be battered with exhaustion, pressure, conflicting demands and frightful responsibilities before this decade is over. King was shot to death in April, 1968, when he was 39, and I was just 22, a young knockabout heading off to sea. We were thousands of miles apart and entirely separate in our paths in the world, but the news sank in in a moment of petrified awareness in which, just for a moment, I felt terribly connected to him, to his final pain and his hope for everything he had begun. Just for that moment, until the machinery of time reasserted itself and my life went its separate way. A |
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19 Jan 09 - 07:46 PM (#2543558) Subject: RE: BS: Martin Luther King Jr. Day From: katlaughing Night Owl called me to tell me to be sure to tune into CNN; they had great coverage of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, throughout the day. She was excited, esp. as she had been in the trenches fighting for civil rights in those times and remembers them well. I was fifteen, living in isolated Western Colorado with only one tv station, but I do remember the shock of that day. |