Thank You Dr. King

I was eight years old and my family had accompanied my dad to Collinsville, Illinois near St. Louis on a business trip. I remember that my parents had gone out and when they returned to the motel they told us that Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot and that we were leaving for (the safety of) our north suburban Chicago home. In 1968 we were a baby boom family with parents from a generation before Vietnam and children from a generation mostly after. In April of 1968 my oldest brother was twelve, (certainly not old enough to serve in Vietnam or be in the streets protesting it) and I was eight. We were liberal Democrats with African American friends at school and although eight, I knew about Martin Luther King Jr. and was very aware of the civil rights struggles of the day. When my parents returned with this news, I remember being very sad and scared and at the age of eight, that was enough. I also recall that my dad seemed worried. That is all I remember until we got back home.

This next part of the story has become one of those things from life that you never forget. One of those things like your first kiss, where you were when JFK was shot (or 9/11 depending on how old you are or both) -- some kind of event that you will remember until the day you die. I remember getting home and my dad pulling out a map of the city of Chicago and spreading this map out on our kitchen table. Now my dad always enjoyed listening to the “fire calls” on the Chicago fire radio, the calls from the dispatcher to the trucks in the field. I also found that kind of interesting and to an eight year old boy fire trucks are pretty cool. This night however was different. The night that MLK Jr. was shot, my dad took that map of the city of Chicago and by the information coming across the radio, he marked down what parts of the city were going up in flames as a result of the rioting that was taking place from the anger and frustration of the day's events.

As many in my generation, this was my first real brush with terror. As I remember it, the mood in the house was similar to that feeling we had during one of those Midwestern tornado warnings, also a radio driven event that created fear. Those were humid summer nights when the skies turned a dark green and you never knew whether what was coming was coming for you.

This night of fear was soon followed by another night of deep sadness, the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Even at that young age, these two tragic days had a lasting and profound effect on me. These two men were different. I was aware of their idealism, of their call for unity and community, and their desire to create visions that would help lead us together as a society to a better place. I have never forgotten their call and during that turbulent spring before my ninth birthday, the threads of their spirit were woven into the fabric of my life.

I have often quoted Dr. King in this blog and with this new direction in my life, I recognize the internal need to mark the holiday of his birth.

In the Time Magazine dated January 9th, 2006, former civil rights leader and Democratic Congressman John Lewis was a member of a group of people who were asked the question, “What if he were alive today?” In part he answered:

The very last time I saw Dr. King alive, he was getting ready to bring people to Washington to deal with not just civil rights, but the whole question of economic justice. He was going to put on the American agenda the pain and the suffering and the hurting of that segment of America. I truly believe if he had lived and if Robert Kennedy had lived and been elected President, the two of them together would have been an unstoppable coalition that would have made the country a place with a greater sense of community.

In that same article, the President of the Children’s Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman notes a very important point when she says:

Everybody is looking for Dr. King to come back. The issues were very clear-cut back then. Now it’s about technical matters, monitoring government agencies. And how do you relate the complex relationships of injustices and basic wrongs and needy children with the legalese and legislation needed to right them to the general public. Dr. King’s vision was clear; the voice was clear. That clarity was a great loss. While we’re all looking for the heroes of the 60’s, a strong foundation has been laid. It spawned the next phase in taking our nation where it needs to get. Now the task is to honor them in our deeds. Where is the voice today? We’re it. We’ve got to make the leaders hear it. He did his part. Now we need to do ours.

I find these to be prophetic words. Indeed, we are it -- he did do his part now we do need to do ours. Most of the time, I have tried to honor his words in my deeds but I have never known exactly how to do that. Now, after this successful, thrilling, unbelievably challenging and certainly enlightening first semester at school, I know I am finally on the right path. In fact, I know many people on this path. Among others they include my classmates at school, members of the newly formed Network of Spiritual Progressives, fellow Unitarian Universalists, and yes, even some other Democrats and Republicans. These are people of all races, backgrounds and economic levels who are working for evolution not revolution.

What I do believe we are missing however is that “clear voice” for that is the void that has not been filled. My question is how can we overcome all our own causes and issues and come together in clarity? How can progressives sacrifice part of their own individual work to join together in creating, as Michael Lerner says, “a new bottom line” for America? I do not have the answer yet, although this is the question that I and many others are working on. I would like to pose this question to all of you. Feel free to respond on the blog if you have any thoughts or send me responses if you want and I can post them with your permission or just ponder this if you will. In my mind this is a huge part of a progressive strategy that needs to be addressed so please allow me to clearly pose this question again; how can progressives with disparate causes and issues find/do something that will bind us together to create a “new bottom line” for America?

To me, this new bottom line would look a great deal like the economic justice and sense of community that John Lewis felt Dr. King and RFK were heading towards. So this is where I continue as I enter my second semester of school. I am searching for the knowledge to help understand my version of faith. I am searching for faith to support my spirit. I am searching for the spirit to provide me vision. I am searching for vision to clarify my purpose. I am hoping that purpose brings me clarity of action. And I hope action helps me facilitate change.

So on the holiday marking your birth Dr. King, I hope our gifts to you are worthy of your lasting gifts to us.