Remembering The King

When was the last time you listened to Dr. King's "I Have A Dream Speech" in it's entirety? Whenever it was, do yourself a favor, close your door, turn up the volume and listen again.

1963 was indeed a beginning. And all of us owe Dr. King some serious thanks for helping to get us off to a helluva start. But we should also remember, that while a ton of progress has been made, there's still a ton of work to be done.

Comments

[Ann Tye]

Thanks for this reminder of Dr.King's greatness. In addition to listening to his wonderful address, we should all resolve to take a King-like action in our own lives: participate in the living-wage movement; encourage someone to vote; speak out when witnessing wrongs.

[Oracle]

And, Jackie, let's hope you are in the vanguard of getting some of that work done.

Sometime when you have a weekend to spare, forget about going somewhere to lie on the beach and soak up the sun. Instead, jet on down to Atlanta; visit the church where he was pastor;sit on one of the benches there ; listen to his speech there; visit the Memorial and the Center. You leave with a renewed sense of this giant's legacy to you, me, America, and the world.

[Cozmo]

I don't know if anybody saw Aaron MacGruder's Boondocks last night, but he always has something interesting to say. Last night it was an interesting riff on the old "If Dr. King were alive today," commentary where the circa 2001 Dr. King was castigated as anti-American and delivered some straight talk at his new political party (which he had to grease the doorman to get into).

Anyway, the main nugget in there that I took out from it was when Huey asks Dr. King why it all changed after he was gone and he said "We were all still waiting for the next Dr. King." Which echos a comment that I saw on Meet the Press in the morning where a guy was saying that the civil rights movement left the realm of hard work done the early 1960s and towards the drama and histrionics of today's civil rights "leaders". He called for a return to the spirit of grass-roots activism and civil rights as a moral issue - what I would call the blocking and tackling of any social campaign for change.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that - as usual - Oracle delievers quality and biting advice here at the AofG. Change doesn't happen without committment at a personal level and if you want it, you've got to own it. To me, nothing could be a truer lesson to learn from his life.

[Cozmo]

And yes, I know I just used interesting twice on the same line up there. Damn inability to edit comments...