I’m not going to tell you that of all the cataclysmic events of the 1960s, the murder of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the one that hit me the hardest.
To a 10-year-old way of thinking back then, there was something horrifically cyclical about his death. What I mean is that so many others had died in the struggle of African Americans to achieve economic equality and social justice – Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner and others – that it didn’t register with me the same way as, say, the death of President Kennedy five years earlier, which I was just beginning to understand back then.
But I knew it was inherently awful, of course, even though it was something that I could not relate to on a personal level because I’m white (again, a 10-year-old worldview speaking from back then). And it helped that, while much of the country raged over his death, Philadelphia “avoided the worst of the violence,” as noted here.
Over time, though, I “filled in the blanks” as much as I could, as did we all – the “how” (King had been asked to intervene in the strike of the Memphis sanitation workers), the “why” (theories that seeking economic opportunity posed a whole different set of problems for individuals of power and wealth who had only grudgingly come to accept voting rights for blacks, to the point where someone decided enough was enough), and the “who” (I don’t know if James Earl Ray was really the shooter or not, but as far as I’m concerned, J. Edgar Hoover might as well have pulled the trigger himself).
It has taken years for me to truly understand the importance of his life, and his immense accomplishments and the abundance of his legacy of self-determination, tolerance, courage and – above all else – love is something that I suspect I will spend many more years trying to comprehend and appreciate to the best of my ability. And my hope is that this is an exercise we continue to perform as a country each and every day.
And in so doing, I hope that those who work to achieve Dr. King’s dream (which is a dream ultimately for the whole world, let’s not forget) realize that, while we need to live and work as Americans in harmony with all races, ethnicities, and religious and gender preferences, we need to police ourselves also and act with a sense of personal self-worth and dignity that would make Dr. King proud and realize that the dream for which he ultimately died still lives among us.
And here are some tribute videos; say what you want about Hillary Clinton, but I think she means every word of what she says here...
...and here is a King/Obama mashup for the occasion also...
...this was the conclusion of King's final speech...
...and though I don't mean to trivialize this occasion in any way with a music video, I have to include this.
Finally, here is a prior post with a link to King's speech at the Barratt School in South Philadelphia in the mid-'60s; the link is still good, and his words are wonderful as always.
Update: Meanwhile, we have the following from "Straight Talk" McCain (here and here).
Update 4/7/08: I absolutely dare our corporate media to give Dr. King the "Reverend Wright" treatment based on this (h/t The Daily Kos).
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