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As some of you know, I like to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday more than just a day off of school. I think it's a good thing for us to use this day to reflect on some of the things that MLK stood for, and hopefully use the opportunity to put them into practice. I went to a seminar on Thursday about what organizations are doing now to try and work toward the goals of the civil rights movements of the 60's, and it was really interesting the take that some people had on how stagnant we've been, and how hard it is nowadays to raise interest in working toward a common goal. It really motivated me to keep my ideas in the front of my mind, so hopefully the organization I want to start one day actually comes to exist. Anyways, I'll leave you guys with some words of wisdom:

Quote

"So I say to you, my friends, even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out it's creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal!"
-Martin Luther King Jr.

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Hip-Hop QOTW:

"Yeah, where I'ma start it at, look I'ma part of that
Downtown Philly where it's realer than a heart attack
It wasn't really that ill until the start of crack
Now it's a body caught every night on the Almanac"

"Game Theory"
The Roots

since i live in california (born and raised)
i never saw a smidge of racism or segregation
as a matter of fact i have always seen people as people, no matter what background.
it wasn't until they started teaching about MLK and american history that i learned of something called racism, but being who i am i saw it as the past.

today is today, tomorrow is tomorrow, yesterday was yesterday

so it didn't really matter to me, until sometime in the 3rd grade when someone, who i had thought was a friend of mine, call another friend of mine, the "N" word.
which ticked me off, so i broke the friendship, and wound up later beating the $^%# out of him.

ever since then the subject has mattered to me, it was just such as surprise that racism is still around in the world,
and i have also had a new found respect for MLK day, which i still do



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"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

Well I see racism all the time. Martin Luther King speaks of a perfect world, not the world we currently live in. All we can do is reduce the amount of racism. It will never disappear.

This post has been edited by i90east on 19th January 2004 23:23

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FFXI (Siren server)
Tauu the Windurstian Tarutaru!
White Mage & Paladin

Day off from school? I wish.

Though my school put up this whole wall dedicated to MLK. Pretty powerful i guess.

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The clouds ran away, opened up the sky
And one by one I watched every constellation die
And there I was frozen, standing in my backyard
Face to face, eye to eye, staring at the last star
I should've known, walked all the way home
To find that she wasn't here, I'm still all alone

-Atmosphere "Always Coming Back Home to You"

That might be a more effective way of observing Martin Luther King's contributions. When kids get the day off, all they care about it the fact that they got the day off. "Martin who? Yeah whatever."

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FFXI (Siren server)
Tauu the Windurstian Tarutaru!
White Mage & Paladin

Students didn't get yesterday off as well. In fact, New Hampshire is the only state that does not recognize MLK Day as a national holiday which sounds extremely horrid, I know. But we had an assembly in the gym yesterday and viewed an hour long film on the life of Martin Luther King. He really was a very powerful influence on his followers (and to those who didn't as well).

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"When I turn the page
The corner bends into the perfect dog ear
As if the words knew I'd need them again
But at the time, I didn't see it."

~"This Ain't a Surfin' Movie" - Minus the Bear