MLK would be 82. (page 2)

PSacramento

MLK...

What can be said that hasn't already been said?

Thanks for posting that letter BTS, it's been awhile since I read it.

The people always kill their prophets, and grieve them afterwards.

Too true...too true...

MLK believed in the Truth, he lived it and died for it.

BizzyBee

BizzyBee, who is your "race leader?"

I'll let you know in a few years when my race is a minority!

Until then, we haven't needed a Civil Rights Act, a Civil Rights March or an NAAWP, either.

snowbird

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/17/assignment_america/main7255823.shtml

I remember one of my clasmates going to St. Paul, Minnesota, to visit relatives and work during a summer break.

Oh, the tales he had to tell when he got back!

Rocked my world.

As for leaders, whenever we stand up or speak out for that which is right, we are leading the way.

Syl

BurnTheShips

I'll let you know in a few years when my race is a minority!

Until then, we haven't needed a Civil Rights Act, a Civil Rights March or an NAAWP, either.

Fascinating. As a "minority," I don't need a "race leader." That idea is stupid. No one speaks for me. I speak for me. I am an individual. If someone said that "so and so" spoke for me just because he was a prominent member of my own particular ethnicity, I would take offense.

To say that particular individuals speak for black people in general is stupid. There are millions of African-Americans, and they all have different ideas.

Also, what Snowbird said.

BTS

sd-7

Rather than jump into any particular debate that's already going on, I'll just speak my mind.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was more than just a 'black leader'. He was a leader of humanity. His ideas transcend the differences between blacks and whites that have repeatedly damaged the ideal of freedom that the United States aspires to. More than that, he was a symbol. A representation of what we are all capable of, if we put aside our differences and join hands to serve each other and the cause of freedom.

I say that he was a symbol because behind his most public face are the faces of thousands who have stood up against injustice. Who suffered through sit-ins at diners and were threatened with assassinations and bombings and lynchings. People who will never get a national holiday but were just as brave and just as inspirational. People who were inspired by King and others like him to stand up against injustice and humiliation and fight for their freedom. And indeed, freedom for one is freedom for all, just as injustice for one is injustice for all.

It boggles my mind to think that I lived to see the day when a man who was 50% African and 50% American would be President of the United States. I hesitate, perhaps because of not being able to speak intelligently on the matter, to compare President Obama with Martin Luther King, Jr., as has sometimes been done. But the face of Barack Obama has become a symbol just as King's face is a symbol. It represents what we can be if we try hard enough. It means that any face can represent the faces of America in all their beauty and variety. That, I believe, is one of the greatest honors this country has rendered to King's memory.

What we need in this era is what we needed in King's era. Not leaders for a black race, but leaders for a human race, without distinction, fighting for the rights of all, believing that all should be helped, educated, represented, and served equally. If there are men and women who will stand up and do that, then they honor what King stood for, and they honor what mankind can stand for, not just in one country, but in all countries.

Celebrating one man's birthday is a pleasant and noble thing, especially if the man was a great man who, whatever his faults as a human being, did something great for everyone. But I hope one day that everyone will be able to celebrate the birthday of Freedom itself. On that day, I think, everyone should take a day off. Until then...the duty that freedom imposes upon us must be carried, not on the shoulders of one, but on the shoulders of all.

--sd-7

snowbird

But I hope one day that everyone will be able to celebrate the birthday of Freedom itself.

It's a-comin,' young man.

It's a-comin.'

Zechariah chapter 14.

6 -7 What a Day that will be! No more cold nights—in fact, no more nights! The Day is coming—the timing is God's—when it will be continuous day. Every evening will be a fresh morning.

8 What a Day that will be! Fresh flowing rivers out of Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea, half to the western sea, flowing year-round, summer and winter!

9 God will be king over all the earth, one God and only one. What a Day that will be! The Message Bible.

Syl

BizzyBee

Well said, sd-7.

Heaven

Everytime I hear or read his "I Have A Dream" speech I get goosebumps. Every single time.

MLK would be 82.

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