|
Edited on Mon Jan-16-06 04:50 PM by Onlooker
Martin Luther King is our own Gandhi or Mandela who through peaceful means reshaped our country. I think a lot of people don't realize what our nation was like prior to the 60s and 70s.
I grew up in the Bronx, and for a while all my friends were black. Then, when I was 10, we moved to a very white suburb where a neighbor constantly harassed us just because we had black friends. Then, around the time King died I was talking with the Republican Mayor of the town I lived in, who was telling me about the "piccaninnies" in town and where they lived. The prejudice was palpable back then.
And, during that same period, you also had students rising up to change the direction of the country and women rising up to get equal rights and not be treated like sex objects. The bullies were losing badly on all fronts, and were they angry! That type of anger exploded into shootings of students, murders of civil rights activists, and attacks (one of which I witnessed as a 10 year old) on anti-war protestors by right-wing thugs as the right-wing police stood by and did nothing!
Through all this chaos was Martin Luther King and his words of nonviolence. His words cut through all the hate and reminded people that the struggle was all about a dream. I don't think this nation has since had anyone as inspirational as him, in terms of what he achieved and what he symbolized. We desperately need someone like him now.
What does he mean to you?
|