Girl's Coffee Shop

Personal King Day Reflection

Thank you so much Camille and Saffron for your Martin Luther King posts, and from a selfish personal view, making me feel special. I feel a personal need to explain. I am a child of the "60s" even though born in 1982. My family has been involved in the civil rights movement since the early 1960s, from voter registration drives in Mississippi to marching in Selma and Birmingham; from attending funeral services for Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in 1964 to participating in candlelight vigils for the Evers and King families. My parents made these people my childhood heros and heroines, asking me to follow their examples and never letting me forget(unfortunately I did and too often for my parents patience) But I did grow up with them through their writings, their speeches, their biographies and of course the public record and the music of the times. I had to memorize " Blowing In The Wind" and "We Shall Overcome" along with the required school obligations and never understanding why I needed to know General McArthurs retirement comments.Growing up, I attended civil rights rallies , clasping my hands with others singing the moving melodies of the 60s and the honoring of Caesar Chavez and his farm workers which made my parents as proud of me as when I achieved some academic award.

Camille and Saffron make important points. I implore everyone to listen to Dr. King's speeches.. They are as valid in 2011 and in fact just as important today as they were in the 1950s and 1960s. Sadly so much is still unfilled. As the girls suggest, Dr King's Lincoln Memorial address was not only about racism , but rather a call to arms for all disaffected people from race to religion to ethnic background; from the physically and mentally challenged to those who espouse a different lifestyle from the moral majority. His message was so much more than wanting us to be able to vote or standing on a mountain in Tennessee holding hands and saying "Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, free at last." He was simply saying all of us have a right to live or lives without fearing the formal big big brother or our prejudiced neighbor looking over our shoulders. This was his genius to look at the totality. This was and is his legacy.

Thanks again to Camille for her poignant post and of course Saffron to giving all of us here the opportunity to share, even if the sharing comes with tears and poignant memories.