Happy Birthday, Dr. King

Martin Luther King Day will be celebrated this coming Monday on January 16. Here is an archived post from last year because it still effectively expresses how I feel. I hope you enjoy it....

I remember the day Martin Luther King was killed very clearly.

I was in fourth grade and attended a typical public school in a typical neighborhood in New York City in which relations between the races were typical of the time --tenuous but getting better.

The Civil Rights Movement was in the news and New York was ready for its overdue concepts. As a ten year old, I was into it---I loved Dr. King's speeches and what he stood for. I was thrilled by the footage on the news when he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial and thrilled again, years later, to stand on the very spot upon which he stood--it's place in history marked by a metal plaque.

In my school that afternoon, there was crying in the hallways and children were given the option to go home early.

As aware as I was, I knew mostly what I viscerally sensed that day--that Dr. King's assassination was something huge, horrible and monumental in the importance of a movement that, although devastated, would not be derailed---even by the loss of its leader.

I am very glad that one of the many results of that awful day is that, for the past 25 years, we have been officially honoring the memory of a great man, taken in his prime from not only a public who needed him but from his own young wife and small children.

Take a moment to watch the video below to watch Dr. King, in grainy black and white, deliver his great speech, "I Have a Dream," and you may experience the goose bumps I got as a little girl and still get today.

Enjoy your day but remember it's more than an opportunity to finally tend to that dry skin on your feet or shop the sales at Best Buy---it's the birthday of a man who advocated non-violence, love and unity. Your feet and the latest techno-crap can wait--go forth and spread the word.