President Obama should watch this and listen carefully as it still applies today! What he said was profound and is certainly still relevant today. Social justice cannot exist parallel to violence.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 -- April 4, 1968), was one of the main leaders of the American civil rights movement. A Baptist minister by training, King became a civil rights activist early in his career, leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott and helping to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, raising public consciousness of the civil rights movement and establishing King as one of the greatest orators in American history. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.
Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Martin Luther King Day was established as a national holiday (which is TODAY) in the United States in 1986. In 2004, King was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal,
As you can see in this short video (less than three minutes), we still have not learned from our mistakes and are still a nation at war--then it was Vietnam and now in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This video was made during the Bush years (2007) and shows a flash of him, but you could easily take Bush out and insert Obama. He not only continues the wars, but sends more of our brave men and women in his latest "surge." It's high time Obama end these wars as he was promised during the campaign, which no doubt got him elected.
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5 comments:
I admire Dr. King and what he did and tried to do. It would be a different/better world if he would have lived longer.
I think he should be on US currency.
I've written that to my congressman, no reply.
@GregoryJ, I agree that it would be a better and different world had Dr. King lived longer. "Only the good die young."
Lovely & important post. Thank you!
We miss you when you are not around...
@Stephen, You are too kind! But you are welcome, and thank YOU! It has been a difficult month (I do accounting and now it's not just monthly, but also annual stuff). So I really appreciate seeing a comment saying I am missed!
I just threw that post together. I wish I would've had more time to talk about Dr. King. My blog is three years old and that was my 3rd MLK Day post! Every year has to be different, of course!
My ex husband is Saudi Arabian, and looks very dark. He was born in this country and was raised in Lodi California, so he has sort of a California pretty boy attitude...very confident. He adopted my son when we were married. My son was about three. Every year my little boy gave him a card, which he made by hand, on Martin Luther King day. Finally one year, (the year we split)my ex asked, "why such a big deal about MLK day? and why do I always get a card?" My son responded in tears and shock. "If it were not for MLK, you couldn't be my dad, cause you're Black!" My ex laughed so hard that his whole life his son thought he was Black. He did explain to him that his dad was from Saudi and that was why his skin was a different color, and my boy was probably still right about MLK. If it were not for him, he could not have been his dad.
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