Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day

[Soul Stream]

I'll be taking the kids to the MLK jr. festival here in town this afternoon. Beautiful day and it should be fun.

Happy MLK day!

[JSngry]

A great day for all of us, I should hope.

It just takes too damn much energy to be suspicious and hateful, energy that could better be used to more constructive ends. Like they say, it's more work to frown than it does to smile, and that's true metaphorically as well as literally, spiritually as well as physically.

That this isn't obvious to all is cause for pause, but the fact that it's significantly more obvious to more than it once was is cause for celebration.

It ain't over 'til it's over, as the sage once said, and it may never be truly, fully over, but taking a day to look back, celebrate, and reassess ain't never hurt nobody.

Onward!

[Jim Alfredson]

I was talking to the lead singer of the R&B band I play with the other day. We were having a rehearsal and waiting for the other guys to show up. On TV they were showing footage of MLK and the civil rights movement. The lead singer is black and I mentioned that I can't listen to MLK speak without being moved, usually to tears. He was just an amazing orator.

Freddie said that he can't watch such documentaries. He said it's easy for him to watch WWII documentaries or movies because "you know how it's going to end. But this stuff is still going on!"

Amen.

[catesta]

Nice post, JS.

[Alexander]

Truely, MLK was among the greatest - if not THE greatest - Americans of the 20th century. We'll not soon see his like again.

When I'm teaching, I'd like to dedicate a week or so around this time each January (in both English and Social Studies) to studying Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement, regardless of what we're working on. Just take some time out to learn about and discuss the life and work of a really great man. I've said it before, but if there's ever a man who DESEVES to be on a dollar bill, it's MLK.

[Chuck Nessa]

During the summer of 1961 our church youth group had a national convention in Miami Beach. Around a half dozen from our congregation went and each of us was to return with a report on a speaker at the convention. I selected MLK. A close 2nd was Wernher Von Braun!

Today I remembered he gave me a small book and went hunting for it. I found it on the shelf - The Measure of a Man - a tiny 34 page hardcover, dust cover in place.

Amazing.

[Chuck Nessa]

BUMP!

Just so the other thread doesn't get all the attention.

[Jim Alfredson]

Great story, Chuck. Did he sign the book?

[Soul Stream]

Yeah, great story Chuck. Amazing time to live in.

[7/4]

wow Chuck...

[Chuck Nessa]

No signature. He looked at someone behind him (could be Ralph Abernathy) and said "give him a book". Pretty heady stuff for a small town high school student in those years.

[chris olivarez]

That's a cool story Chuck. His message is very much on my mind this day and every day.

[Soul Stream]

The Jack Johnson story on PBS is a good way to see how far MLK took us. What MIGHT have been had we not had MLK...well, that's pretty unimaginable.

[Randy Twizzle]

During the summer of 1961 our church youth group had a national convention in Miami Beach. Around a half dozen from our congregation went and each of us was to return with a report on a speaker at the convention. I selected MLK. A close 2nd was Wernher Von Braun!

Here's an August 14,1961 story about some other young people who went to that convention. Unfortunately Dr King doesn't get much ink here. According to this article the topic of "Space" was discussed by Congressman Walter H Moeller.