Martin Luther King Jr. Day

This year the holiday fell on Cathy and Kelly's birthday!! I am so fortunate to have been able to spend their birthday with them this year because of Kelly's cute husband, Dave, who orchestrated an amazing girl's weekend for us. Don't worry I will blog all about it, because it was seriously the best!

Back to MLK, Jr.---

What a force! I can only imagine what would happen if he were still alive today. When I think of what he did to lead the Bus Boycott, I wonder if I would have had the courage not to ride the bus. What if I was wearing uncomfortable shoes and just wanted to slip on the back of the bus unnoticed to get relief?

When I think of how his every action was calculated to thwart the Jim Crow laws, I think, would I have had the courage to stand up for equality? What about if my family was being threatened and the FBI was wiretapping my home, would I still believe in nonviolence? Would I have marched alongside King for the right to vote and other basic civil rights?

I look at my life now and see all that I have been able to achieve. I doubt the same opportunities would have been offered to me, if Mr. King had not been the man who he was.

I would encourage you to re-read his famous I have a Dream speech he delivered in Washington, DC in 1963. When I lived in DC and I would visit the Lincoln Memorial, I used to try to envision what it must have felt like to be standing there and listening to him deliver this speech that has become one of the most famous American speeches in history. Would I have been fidgeting or would the magic of the moment, quieted me to stand still?

I think of now how I can embrace both parts of my heritage (black and white) and how back then since I wasn’t 100% white, I would have been scorned from that community. I may have been scorned from the black community too since I wasn’t 100% black. Even though racism STILL exsists, it’s not nearly as bad as it was.

“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’
I have a dream that… [we]…will one day live in a nation where [we] will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.… When we allow freedom ring…we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

I wonder if he is looking down and is satisfied? My guess is no. We still have a long way to go. I think that sometimes, during the hustle and bustle of life, we forget how hard those before us fought! Not only MLK, but countless others. The world isn’t perfect, but I believe Martin Luther King, Jr. was inspired and I believe that he made a difference in my life.