Martin Luther King Day activities

It was my 17th birthday: April 4, 1968.  I was driving home from an after-school event, listening to the radio, looking forward to an enjoyable evening celebrating my Dad's and my birthday.  (Yep, he got me as a birthday present the year I was born!)

Suddenly... "Breaking news from Memphis, Tennessee.  The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., has been shot.  News reports are saying that he has died."  I was stunned, shocked, saddened, and not just a little afraid.  The previous summer had seen race riots all over my hometown of Joliet, Illinois, with the National Guard being activated and a dusk to dawn curfew put into effect.  Fights had broken out in my high school one day the previous year, and the school was closed for four days.  Classes resumed with helmeted Illinois State Police troopers walking the hallways.  "What would happen after this," I wondered.

I have two older sisters.  My closest one in age is 10 years older than me, so I almost was raised in a different generation.  I truly was in a generation that experienced very different things than when my sisters were in their most formative years, and those things affected us.  I'm a Presbyterian; both my sisters are Christian fundamentalists.  I'm politically liberal; both my sisters are staunch conservatives. I was never in the military; both of my brothers-in-law were in the Air Force, and one continued working in Civil Service at the Pentagon.  Over the decades, every now and then one of my sisters would look quizzically at me and ask, "Where did you come from?"  I remind them that their formative years were in the 50's, while mine was in the 60's.  So what happened to make me different in many ways from them? President Kennedy and his youthful idealism and vast social programs happened.  What happened?  The assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy, and of Martin Luther King, Jr. happened.  What happened?  Race riots happened.  What happened?  Vietnam happened.  In short, I grew up in a community, in a nation, in a world that was very different than that in which my sisters grew up.

I long have felt connected to Dr. King.  It's not just the connection that happened with the conjunction of his assassination on my birthday.  It's about how he lived much of his life.  It's about the power both of his ideas and of the ways in which he shaped and framed those in his writings and his speeches.  It's about deep truths he spoke concerning the sinful and shameful ways in which we have let race divide us.  It's about the dreams and hopes he shared that we can build a better society and can live in better ways.  It's about how he embodied the fact that, even when confronted by hate, by violence, by ignorance, by mere indifference, there is another way in which we can choose to respond.  We can respond with peaceful and constructive confrontation... with justice... with compassion... with love... with nonviolence.

How will you be observing this year's Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday?  I'll be engaged in some service projects Monday morning.  I'll be having lunch with someone who's in some pain at the moment.  I'll be doing other things I routinely do on King's birthday: reading some of his writings and watching and listening to some of his speeches.  I find I need these reminders that I, too, can search to live and serve, love and respond in other ways than might seem "natural."  I find I need these reminders that I, too, can have a dream, and I can work to see dreams realized in my own life, in our Presbytery, in the PC(USA), in our world.

Keep the dream alive, friends.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have two older sisters... like 10 and 13 years older. Although we come from the same birth family, our formative years were spent in societies in the U.S. that were very different.  My sisters were growing up primarily in the 50's; I was growing up primarily in the 60's.  Those were VERY different years in our nation!  It probably should be no surprise, therefore, to hear that my sisters and I have very different political views.  Every now and then, one of them will ask me, "How is it that you turned out so different from us?"  I just smile and say, "The 60's.  Remember?"  Whereas their formative years were shaped by U.S. strength and prosperity in the world, mine were shaped by assassinations, race riots, and Vietnam.

The writings, speeches, and sermons of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. long have had profound impact on my life and my worldview.  The ties that I feel to him probably were made stronger by the fact that he was assassinated on my 17^th birthday:  April 4, 1968.

I remember reading his August 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail to the pastoral leaders in that community.  It persuasively - at least to me! - laid out his defense for coming to Birmingham to participate in the demonstrations that were taking place.  More than that, though, Dr. King laid out his eloquently and passionately worded belief that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."  He accurately pointed out to his ministerial brothers (they were all men at that time, of course), that "History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily."

How do we honor such a profound legacy as the one Dr. King left to us?  Surely setting aside one day is something, albeit minimal.  And the inspired idea of making King's birthday holiday into a National Day of Service is a huge step in the right direction.  Ultimately, of course, it comes down to each of us... as well as to all of us.  What kinds of things are we willing to do to stand for peace and justice?  How will others know of our strong Reformed heritage of working for societal good and for the welfare of those most helpless and in need?  How do we demonstrate our embrace of all people as children of God, those for whom Christ lived and died?

Profound questions, yes?  And profound questions always call for definitive, intentional, demonstrative, and profound answers.

Blessings and peace,

Steve