Dr. Martin Luther King

I Had a Dream…

/ kevingdrendel / 2 Comments

2008 Democratic National Convention: Day 4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More than 86 years have passed since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth. Almost 50 years have passed since his death. Not insignificantly, we celebrate Martin Luther King Day at the anniversary of his birth, not the anniversary of his death. Though I cannot help but remember the tragic day of his death that left its imprint on my young, impressionable mind, I pray that the legacy of his life will draw us back to his message. May the light of his life outshine the darkness left in the void of his death.

“I had a dream….” are the words that echo through the halls of history into our present consciousness. We hear those words repeated with the same sense of passion with which they were first spoken, but they seem dulled by the resistance of time. The present passion with which those words were spoken sits now like a dusty tome on the shelf of our collective memory.

Yet, those words were poignant…they are poignant still today. Continue reading →

We May Just Be Colorblind

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lightstock_75446_xsmall_user_7997290I intended to spend some time researching and writing about Thanksgiving. I was going to do that last year, but got distracted. Yesterday I planned to take the morning today to research and write about Thanksgiving  but it will have to wait because I am distracted again.

Like watching a train wreck is “Ferguson”. It has risen (or has been reduced) to the level of one name status, like Chernobyl or Iwo Jima or Prince. Ferguson has character and personality of its own, and it is ugly.

Life can be ugly. Life can be beautiful too.  We can find ugliness and beauty in many places. Sometimes all we see is the ugliness. Sometimes beauty can be seen in the midst of the ugliness, like a line of Ferguson protestors standing guard in front of a business to protect it.

Ferguson is more than an incident that some simply find unfortunate. It is more than an incident that demonstrates over militaristic modern police tactics, the foolishness of brazen, gangsta youth or vestiges of raw racism. Ferguson has reopened the deep wound of centuries of slavery, oppression and injustice. We dare not brush it off.

Consider the now iconic missive: “Can’t we all just get along?” (To be perfectly sardonic)

It is not that simple. Continue reading →

The Dream That Lives On

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Paulsasleepwalker- MLK-Nonviolence

I am not black and cannot imagine what it feels like to experience the dark side of discrimination. I don’t understand what it feels like, but I do believe we need to get past discrimination – of any kind. I yearn for the day when we can agree or disagree on something, and that something has nothing to do with the color of anyone’s skin.

I will never forget the day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died, a day that has affected the rest of my life. I remember the shame of a young classmate expressing prejudice, and I knew instinctively that prejudice was wrong. I was very young – only 8 – when he died, but I still recall that next April morning, walking to grade school in the bright sunlight. The brightness of the sun was in stark contract to the dark emptiness I felt for Dr. King’s death and the hatred that caused it. Continue reading →