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So I was in a deep writing mood while reading up on Martin Luther King Jr and I decided to write a lengthy piece on the man as a way to honor his memory.
Enjoy folks -
Martin Luther King Jr.
Have you ever dreamed of doing something so great that history would remember you for centuries to come? Think back to your childhood dreams and your aspirations for society now. How many times have you watched the suffering of people and dreamed of helping to create a world where that suffering no longer existed? I’ve often idolized the great political leaders of world’s past and how they were able to rally an organized cause to end suffering in the world. I've dreamed of being just like them, talking just like them, and accomplishing great things just like them. One man in particular took those dreams and aspirations and made them a reality.
Martin Luther King Jr is most known as the champion of civil rights but many forget that he was also a champion of wealth equality. I wish we had thirty more men like him in the world today that could help unite the nation together. I’m writing this to share my enthusiasm of the awesome life he lived and the difference he made.
He followed up on the work started by so many unsung abolitionists from the 1800s and probably the most powerful and known one in Abraham Lincoln. Martin Luther King Jr. was a man of peace, courage, and wits. He purposely placed his marches and protests in the most racist towns in America because he knew how the whites would react to their presence. He wanted the nation and the entire world to see the terrible violence taking place against others just because they looked different with their own eyes. He lead peaceful protests no matter how violent the opposition became. Him and all those who marched him had insults, rocks, punches, spray hoses, beatings, and murder come to them but even so they remained peaceful. They forced the country to feel compassion for their cause while unveiling the disgusting underbelly of racism still holding America in bondage. It culminated with his monumental “I Have a Dream” speech that had millions of Americans questioning their own morality on August 28, 1963. The speech alone was not enough and though we remember it today for its excellence life quickly moved on during that time and its affects wore off. Martin Luther King Jr. with many others continued to press political leaders and the everyday American to take notice. These efforts got the attention of a young President John F. Kennedy along with his Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. With the civil rights leaders gaining support in Washington they guided through the dangerous political territory of America’s tumor casting a dark shadow over the hearts of millions. It would take the assassination of John F. Kennedy, continued peaceful marches, speeches, protests, blood, sweat, and determination for July 2, 1964 to finally happen. The Civil Rights Act was put into law and though it didn’t cause an immediate turn around it forced America onto a more righteous path. We look back at those decades leading up to 1964 in regret of how many lives that had to be lost and in awe of the greatness Martin Luther King Jr. had achieved. One year later the Voting Rights Act would follow which guaranteed people of color the right to vote. Finally African Americans could proudly say they had the rights guaranteed to all Americans under our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Martin Luther King Jr. deserves full credit for never once backing down from the mountainous obstacles placed in front of him.
His journey did not end with Civil Rights. He continued on fighting for income equality, education, and healthcare. He longed to see a day where the richest country in the world provided as much support for those in poverty as it does for its massive military. He spoke of living wages, universal healthcare, and guaranteed education for all Americans no matter their financial status. This dream would meet the thunderous silence of an assassin’s bullet on April 4, 1968. We celebrate him not because we believe he was a perfect man but because he stood for one of the noblest causes in American history. After the Civil Rights and Voting Acts had passed he could have retired comfortably. His role in history had already been cemented for decades to come, but he understood the power that God had given him. He took the courageous step to stand up for a faction of America that seldom had their voices heard with the rare exceptions of the Square Deal, New Deal, and the Great Society. I often wonder what would have happened if he had been able to dodge the assassin's bullet. I have day dreamed about a world where he lives and rallies up a large enough cause to end poverty in America once and for all. It’s a question we will never know the answer to but it does leave us with the fact that the work championed by Martin Luther King Jr. is far from over. Though he is with God in Heaven there are still millions of Americans living in poverty with conditions worsening over the last three decades. I am optimistic that one day his vision for a true war on poverty will take place. We must do more than praying to see this happen, we must follow in his example and take action ourselves, fighting for the change we want.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a man of honor, integrity, grace, compassion, and empathy. I will always idolize him for the groundwork he laid and I can only pray that I am able to make half of the difference he made.
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This was something I wrote and posted on Facebook last January re thoughts on black American history:
MOONLIT ARRIVALS
Evening class in Bloomington
Setting sun saturates the July night with rich color.
I was strolling past a dusty baseball field near the railroad
Saw a fellow approaching
I nodded my head to him with a smile.
He stopped, stretched, and gazed at the field.
"Eighty years ago," he said,
"The Negro League barnstormed through here.
Teams would arrive on hot, muggy nights
From lonely train rides.
No board guaranteed for them
Even though whites excitedly came to see them play.
Think of the love those players had for the game
To endure the grueling schedules,
The hateful heckling, the distances they traveled
Away from their families.
But they battled on -
Free men having to steal home."
"How much have we gained," I asked,
And how much have we lost?"
"Constantly gaining, constantly losing," he said,
"America is a nation which gives you the chance
To disembark from the train
At any spot in the middle of nowhere
And play the game."
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