Today marks the 39th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis while supporting the efforts of sanitation workers to achieve dignity and better working conditions. He has been dead as long as he was alive. 39 years.
In that relatively short, Jesus-like lifespan, he accomplished so much. From the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, he was there in the lead of a nonviolent army. He reluctantly took on the role of public leadership of the Montgomery bus boycott triggered by the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955; he so eloquently expressed his -- and Black America's -- dream in August 1963; he just as eloquently, but not so well publicized, expressed the nightmare that was reality after four young girls were killed in the terroristic bombing of a Birmingham church later in 1963. King connected the dots between a fall-off in federal budgetary support for President Johnson's War on Poverty and his escalation of the war in Vietnam. What a parallel to what we are experiencing now, as the US pours billions into Iraq, pallets of which have disappeared, unaccounted for, but can't get its act together on resurrecting Gulf communities this long after Hurricane Katrina!
King's works and his philosophy, his challenges and his courage should be on our minds every day as we vow to do our very best to make this a better world.
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4 comments:
Awesome post.
I've been out-of-the-loop and had no idea about this particular anniversary. Was it covered in the media much?
Thanks.
There has not been major coverage as far as I can determine, but if you check www.news.google.com, you will see how this anniversary is being marked around the country.
Hope you are on the mend, healthwise.
Wow, I just learned something new.
Hiruy, thanks for being willing to learn.
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