Friends of Padre Steve’s World. Today was the anniversary of the birth of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. He would have been 85 years old. It has been a busy day at work and I need to review my lesson plans for tomorrow as I will be teaching all day. To me Dr King still matters. When I read his writings or watch videos of his speeches and sermons I am inspired to want to do better and help keep his dream alive. There is still too much inequity, too much hatred and the spirit of Jim Crow still abides in many places in our country. I cannot be silent. Dr King once said “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.” I reached that point a number of years ago and will continue to speak out. I am appalled by the voting restrictions being imposed in some states, almost all in the Old South, including North Carolina which disproportionately target African Americans, especially the young trying to better their lives and the elderly. When I think of them I am reminded of Nazi leader Hermann Goering who asked an American psychologist at Nuremberg “the segregation laws in your country and the anti-Semitic laws in mine, are they not just differences of degree?” Dr King noted: “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.” I think I shall revisit this topic again soon.
Peace, Padre Steve+
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”
Note: The complete text and video of Dr. King’s speech can be found here:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
It is hard to believe that it has been 50 years since Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and other pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement marched in Washington. I am always inspired when I see the films of Doctor King speaking or read the text of that speech and so many other of his speeches and writings. He was a prophet who was not welcome by many, but his words and actions have reverberated through the decades. Though martyred, cut down by the bullets of James Earl Ray in Memphis his spirit lives on and is part of our country.
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The Inglorius Padre Steve's World 